Lessons of Nature
by MelonRinds
Summary: The old gang goes on a hiking trip to the mountains. Getting completely lost and in trouble is a lot easier without a frizzy haired guide.
1. The Plan

**Yay! First try at a multi chapter fic. The first chapter is mostly written from an objective point of view I think, with a bit of insight to Dorothy Ann's thoughts a bit later on. I'll go deeper into more of the characters minds in later chapters.**

**The story starts off with no established pairings. They will come in due time, don't worry ;)**

**Enjoy!

* * *

**

The third week of March was as dull and lifeless as usual to the students of Walkerville Secondary School. Not much had happened in the past few weeks unless you counted Mr. Brunes, the chemistry teacher, finally losing it and throwing a large hunk of chalk at Ralphie Tenelli the fifth time in a row he didn't hand in his homework, or Arnold breaking his brand new pair of glasses after tripping down the school stairs into his cousins locker.

The old gang was starting to get rather restless at the seemingly endless string of boredom, and appeared to be willing to do anything to at least get a little excitement. The constant downpour of rain didn't help their moods either. Although, to be honest, not one of the eight students could say they ever had an exciting day since their graduation from the third grade.

Their prayers for the mindless boredom to end were eventually answered though, one Wednesday afternoon while three of the girls were relaxing in the local hangout, Lat Cafe. A promise of excitement given, as it usually was, by one of their best friends, Wanda Li.

"Hey! You weasly wimps doing anything this long weekend?!"

The three girls addressed looked up from their shakes with mild puzzlement. Whenever Wanda looked this exited about something, the rest of the gang knew they were in for some sort of adventure. As long as they were willing of course.

"No… What have you got planned for us exactly…" Keesha, the most sensible of the group asked with mild interest. She was leaning back casually in her chair from Lat Cafe and lazily swirling her straw inside her shake.

"You guys remember my Aunt Mandy?" Wanda asked, taking a seat next to Phoebe.

"No."

"No…"

"Aunt Mandy…" Dorothy Ann thought for a moment, sipping lightly on her strawberry shake. "You mother's older sister? Married to that rich lawyer you hated… then divorced… Owns that bed and breakfast somewhere in the Granger Mountains…?"

"Couldn't have learned that out of a book, could ya?"

"No!" Dorothy Ann defended. "I just remembered Wanda mentioning it last year at the school picnic!" She huffed and slid her drink away from his eager hands.

"Awwn, come on DA, lighten up," Carlos said, collapsing in the seat next to her.

"Carlos," Keesha wrinkled her nose in disgust. "You're covered in mud and rain. It's dripping from your jacket onto the floor!"

"What did you expect coming inside from weather like that?" Carlos said, folding his arms over his chest.

"I thought your soccer practice didn't end until five anyways. Why are you so early?" DA asked.

"Tim sprained his wrist pretty bad," Carlos answered. He turned to the sound of the bells above the door of the café tinkling and they all saw Ralphie come in with Arnold. "Plus half the team didn't show up because of the weather."

"Oh, is Tim okay?!" Phoebe asked worriedly while Arnold struggled behind them trying to get his umbrella to close. Ralphie joined the rest of the group at the table.

"Yeah, he's fine, he's just upset that it was his drawing hand – "

"Ahem," Wanda cleared her throat. "Anyways, Carlos, before you interrupted I was about to tell these guys – "

"Right, so what about your Aunt Mandy?" Keesha asked.

Wanda took a deep breath, apparently satisfied she now had the groups full attention. "Well, you know that bed and breakfast Dorothy Ann mentioned?"

"Now we do." Keesha said.

"Well, my aunt's not going to be there this weekend..." Wanda paused, excitement gleaming in her eyes. "And you know what that means?" She grinned and her brown eyes flickered back and forth between the group. They all looked warily back at her, apparently too tired to play her little game.

"You're going to that bed and breakfast for the long weekend?" Ralphie asked.

"Yes..." Wanda said, clearly disappointed by their lack of enthusiasm. "And you're all coming with me you idiots!"

"To the Granger Mountains?" Arnold asked. He had finally managed to close his umbrella and, after getting a disapproving look from an employer behind the cash register, quickly took a seat next to Wanda.

"Yeah, the best part is, my aunt won't be there until Saturday, so we get two days completely undisturbed by adult supervision!"

There was a quick pause while the group thought it over - but there wasn't much they had to think over - there was really nothing to object to.

"I love you Wanda," Ralphie answered before stealing a slip of Keesha's banana smoothie. She slapped his hand back and Arnold looked up at Ralphie with a very pink face.

"Er - thanks Ralphie," Wanda rolled her eyes. "Anyways, are the rest of you in?!"

"Is a school bus yellow?!" Carlos asked, banging his hand on the table and upsetting Phoebe's drink. "Of course! Oops.. Sorry Pheebs... Here I'll get you another one..."

"I don't know..." Keesha mused. "I'd love to go of course. But I just have to ask my grandmother first.."

"Same," Phoebe said. "I'm sure it'll be fine though."

"Great," Wanda said, standing up. "Let me know by tomorrow and then if the answer's still yes, I'll see you all Friday morning." And she left without another word; an excited atmosphere stayed behind in her wake.

"No parents for two days! Alone in the mountains for two days! I heard her aunt's place is really nice too!" Keesha said breathlessly.

"I just hope the weather's going to be better than this..." Arnold said, looking at the rain splattered windows.

"I'm surprised Arnold," Keesha said, resting her head on her hands which were balled into fists and resting on her elbows. "I didn't expect _you_ would want to go."

"Are you kidding?! The Granger Mountains have some of the rarest rocks out there!" Arnold said keenly. "I've been wanting to go for ages."

"But don't be surprised if half his backpack is filled with emergency supplies," Carlos said, returning from the cashier with another shake for Phoebe.

"Think your parents will let you go though?" Keesha asked Dorothy Ann.

"I'm not sure..." Dorothy Ann said. "I hope so... They might be a little iffy on the idea though. I'd have to absolutely guarantee my safety to them before they let me..."

"You're coming even if we have to dress Mikey up as you to fool your parents into thinking you're home," Carlos said.

"I'll think of something a little more realistic if worse comes to worse," Dorothy Ann sighed and shook her head at Carlos.

xxx

Dorothy Ann chose to ask her parents about it when the whole family was seated around the dinner table. The dinner table was where every family matter was discussed: whether it was what the weather would be like the next day, or where they were going on their next family vacation. Dorothy Ann's father especially, was a pretty lenient person when running on a full stomach. She knew she wouldn't have too much trouble convincing him, not unless he had changed his mind about her spending too much time studying or reading and finally getting some fresh air and exercise - now that she thought of it, sometimes her father reminded her a lot of Carlos.

Her mother on the other hand, would be the one hardest to convince, and unfortunately, the one who would make the final decision. Sure enough, the conversation started just how Dorothy Ann had expected it to.

"Hiking in the Granger Mountains alone Dorothy Ann? I don't know..."

"Mom, I won't be alone," Dorothy Ann protested. She had been planning on how exactly to explain the situation ever since she got back from Lat Cafe. "Everyone's coming."

"Including four boys," her father added, pointing his fork at her. "I don't like the idea Dorothy Ann."

"Yeah dad, Carlos is going," DA younger sister Evan teased. She stuffed a bite of chicken in her mouth and smirked at her sibling.

"I am not going out with Carlos!" DA almost shouted, exasperated. "How many times have I told you Evan, I don't even have a crush on him!"

"Okay..."

"I don't!"

"Dorothy Ann," her mother interrupted. "It's not just that - "

"That's all I'm against," their father said.

"John, they'll be hiking alone in the mountains! _Alone_ in the mountains! What if they get lost?"

"Margret, it's a great experience when you're that age," her husband said, finally siding with Dorothy Ann. "I went there myself when I was a teenager. Couple of friends came with me - no girls with us - " he added meaningfully to his eldest daughter. "And nothing happened. There were plenty of other hikers around and the trail's marked well enough."

"We won't get lost!" Dorothy Ann insisted. "I even have a guide book. And besides, Wanda's aunt will be there too!"

"She will?" her mother looked skeptical.

"Well yeah," DA said. It was the truth after all. Ms. Li _was_ supposed to be arriving at the bed and breakfast Sunday afternoon. She wouldn't be on the hike, but at long as Dorothy Ann could keep her mother convinced she would be, her mother had to let her go.

"Margaret, I've been asking Dorothy Ann to get out of the house, away from the books, and get some fresh air and exercise for ages. You're not going to make me a hyprocrite when she finally asks to go? I think this will be good for her."

Dorothy Ann waited nervously for her mother's verdict as she looked back and forth from her daughter to her husband.

"Fine!" she finally shouted, defeated. "You can go!"

"Yes!" DA jumped up from the dinner table and hugged her mother tightly. "I love you!"

"Just be careful."

"Yeah, yeah..."

"And if even one of those boys tries anything funny- "

"I'll be _fine_ dad..."

xxx

Dorothy Ann wasn't the only one who had to convince parents it would be a good idea: Arnold's parents had to make sure first that he was going there out of free will to examine some interesting rock samples the mountain had to offer, not leaving because the girl he couldn't quite hide his crush on had asked him to come with her. Keesha's grandmother only let her go on the grounds that she would carry every necessary first aid supply to the cabin with her and Phoebe's mother almost had a heart attack when her daughter mentioned the trip.

However, surprisingly, and with a great amount of luck and begging, all eight friends managed to be able to make it in the end; all of them were more than eager and ready to go early Friday morning.

"Wow! Huge van Wanda! It's like a bus!" Ralphie exclaimed loudly with awe. "I call front seat!"

"Thanks," Wanda said, climbing into the drivers seat. "My aunt let us borrow it for the trip."

"You sure you can drive us all there Wanda?" Arnold asked nervously as the others piled into the van. "I mean, you only got your license a little over a month ago..."

"Arnold," Wanda sighed. She drummed her fingers impatiently on the sterring wheel. "Quit being such a worry wart and get in. I know what I'm doing."

"Have you ever driven this thing before?" Carlos asked from the very back row.

"I drove it here in one piece," Wanda reassured. "Everyone buckled up? Besides Arnold," she added as an afterthought, "this can't be any harder than piloting the bus through the outer planets."

Phoebe giggled and Arnold, who did not look any more at ease, buckled himself up in the seat next to her.

"Hey, how long does it take to get there anyway?" Keesha asked from the seat directly behind Wanda.

Wanda readjusted the drivers seat before answering. "Two hours to the parking lot, and then a five hour hike afterwards."

"Five hours?!" Ralphie choked. "You never mentioned that before! Are you kidding me?"

Wanda rolled her eyes. "Actually, the hike should technically take us three, I only said five because you're with us."

Ralphie glared at her and Tim, Carlos, and Keesha laughed in the back.

"That's why we had to get up at such an ungodly hour, Ralphie," Carlos said, resting his head on the headrest in front of him. "So we'd be at the cabin before nightfall. DA, put the book away, we're on vacation."

"For your information Carlos, it's a guide on hiking in the Granger Mountains," Dorothy Ann said, turning around to look at him. "So we don't get lost."

Carlos rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. Who needs a book. I have a good sense of direction."

"I'll be waiting for you to eat those words when you end up at the bottom of some bat cave Carlos," Dorothy Ann said, turning away from him back to her book. "And would you stop fiddling with my hair!"

"It's hanging over onto my seat!"

Dorothy Ann moved forward slightly and pulled her hair back.

There was a groan from the font seat. "Five hours..."

"Ah Ralphie, you'll be fine," Tim assured. "You're the athlete remember?"

"Yeah, but - who has a bed and breakfast in the middle of the mountains anyways? Who comes for just a night?"

"It's not in the middle of nowhere," Wanda said. "There's a town nearby, but to drive there takes several extra hours because you have to go around."

"Ralphie, it's why we had to bring those packs specially designed for backpacking," Phoebe said.

"I... I brought a duffle bag..."

"You'll be fine," Wanda said quickly. "Everyone ready?"

Answered with hearty cheers, Wanda started up the van without further ado. They were off.

* * *

**Next chapter coming ASAP.**

**I like reviews :)**


	2. The First Mistake

**More hints at future pairings to come in this chapter. :)**

**Enjoy!

* * *

**

The drive took two hours, just like Wanda promised. They stopped briefly in a neighbouring town of Walkerville so Wanda could refuel the van and, with no more detours, proceeded to move up towards the parking lot where they would begin their journey on foot.

Eager to get started, the eight friends jumped out of the van soon after it rolled to a stop and scrambled to get their packs and gear sorted out. Dorothy Ann swallowed and her ears popped. She had forgotten to check their starting altitude in the guide book.

Having brung quite a light pack, Dorothy Ann was one of the first to be buckled and ready; she sat on a rock and pulled out the guide while she waited. She could hear Tim in the background struggling to get his hiking boots on with one properly functioning hand while she turned the to the page with the map. She frowned. Reading a map was something that didn't come as easily to her as reading prose. Not that she had _too _much trouble, it was just that a map of the Granger Mountains could have been written with half as much scrawl. By the time it took her to just locate the parking lot they were in, even Arnold had managed to haul his enormous pack over his shoulders.

"You ready DA?" Wanda shouted from inside the van. Dorothy Ann saw she had just pulled on her own hiking boots and was ready to lock the door.

Dorothy Ann stuffed the guide quickly into one pocket of the backpack. "Yeah. Are we ready to go?"

"Yeah, we should start now if this things going to take us five hours," Carlos said, looking at his watch.

"Is it just me, or does it look like it's about to rain?" Ralphie asked, looking up ominously at the sky.

"Hey, which trail do we start on?" Keesha asked, pointing in one direction and then another. Dorothy Ann followed her gaze and saw there were indeed two separate dirt paths winding away and disappearing into the evergreen forest.

"Check your map DA," Carlos said, hands stuffed in his pockets. Dorothy Ann pulled the guide back out and flipped to the appropriate page. This time she could find the parking lot immediately, and the two trails.

"I think it's that one," DA said, pointing to the one on the right. "I pretty sure it's - oh for crying out loud, there's a sign!"

Carlos snorted. "She's right. How are we supposed to find this place when we're that oblivious?"

"By following my lead," Wanda said, snatching the book from Dorothy Ann's hands. "I've been on this trail before - "

"When you were, what, eight?" Ralphie asked.

" - and I know exactly where we need to go," Wanda finished.

"There are a few forks," DA said, snatching the guide back. "And you can be the leader, but it's my book!"

"Can we get started," Arnold asked. "This backpacks starting to get really heavy..."

xxx

The group of eight got to the next fork in only fifteen minutes; it turned out fifteen minutes was all that was needed for Wanda to find out she really didn't remember as much of the trail as she thought.

"This fork's new," she concluded.

"Are you kidding?" Ralphie said. "It's so old the lettering's been scratched off the post!"

"Well then _you_ navigate," Wanda snapped.

"What does your book say, DA?" Arnold asked, peering over her shoulder. DA, who hadn't closed it during the hike so far, skimmed the map, looking for the fork.

"It says we should go left," she said slowly, not taking her eyes off the guide. "Yeah," she looked up at Wanda. "It's definitely the left fork."

"See?" Wanda said. "We're fine as long as we've got bookbrain with us!" She pushed DA ahead of her onto the left fork.

"Bookbrain?"

"Hey...hey guys?"

"What is it Arnold?" Wanda asked impatiently, turning back around to face him.

Arnold pointed to the ground right below his feet. "Um... should we be worried about this?"

Dorothy Ann and Phoebe bent down curiously to see what he was talking about.

DA hadn't been looking as closely at the ground as Arnold apparently had been, her eyes being locked mostly on the guide book, but there was definitely something there. Printed into the moist soil was something that closely resembled an animals footstep. A cracked twig lay inside the indented earth.

"It looks like a bear print," Phoebe said finally.

"Looks almost a week old too," Tim said, joining the girls on the ground. "I don't think we'll run into any trouble with one. They're usually pretty docile anyway." He stood up again, apparently unconcerned.

Arnold, however, still looked rather worried.

"Running into a bear is a lot better than running into a dinosaur," Phoebe smiled at him.

"T - Rex," Ralphie cut in. "To be exact.."

"Yeah, but this time I'm only five foot seven," Arnold said, however he looked slightly calmer.

"Relax Arnold," Wanda said, a hint of impatience in her voice. "We ready to continue moving?"

Dorothy Ann double checked the map one last time and nodded. She joined Wanda up at the font of the group and they moved on forwards.

xxx

After three bridges and two more crossroads later, the gang settled down for a snack in a fairly large clearing of the forest. The figured they were rather lucky finding a spot large enough, as the trees were getting closer and closer together and the path narrower, and decided to have lunch a bit ahead of schedule. Also, the clearing bade home to several more pathways, and, since even Dorothy Ann couldn't tell them which one to take with absolute certainty due to the fact she had tripped and dropped the book in a large pit of mud, the gang decided to take a much needed break.

"Bring any malloblasters Arnold?" Ralphie leaned over hopefully.

"I'm saving them for later," Arnold slid away from Ralphie's eager hands. "I mean, who know's, there might not be any at the bed and breakfast. I wanted to come prepared."

"My aunt keeps plenty of food stocked in there," Wanda said while she dug in her backpack for a sandwich. "I'm sure she has mallowblasters up there."

"Just so long as she doesn't have sea weedies!" Carlos said, taking a bite out of his apple. "Hey, get away!" he shooed a Whiskey Jack away from the trail mix lying beside him.

"Aw, Carlos don't!" Phoebe scolded. "They're just hungry." And she held up a piece of granola in her palm. One of the birds jumped onto it, grabbed the food in it's beak, and took off again. She giggled. "Awww! I love these birds..."

"What else is at the cabin Wanda?" Dorothy Ann asked, tossing a slice of bread at the nearest Whiskey Jack.

"The most gorgeous lake you've ever seen!" Wanda said excitedly. "With a floating dock in the middle and everything!"

"For skinny dipping?" Carlos grinned.

"Carlos!" Dorothy Ann and Keesha rolled their eyes at him.

"He's right," Ralphie nodded his head solemnly. "You can't go camping without skinny dipping."

"Maybe you can't, Ralphie, but I most certainly can," Keesha said.

"And the best part is, since no one will be there, we can each take whatever rooms we want!" Wanda continued. "Including the most expensive, fanciest ones you can get up here!"

"I could kiss you Wanda," Ralphie smiled, closing his eyes and leaning back against a tree trunk.

Dorothy Ann could have sworn she had seen Wanda turn a faint shade of pink before she recovered and managed to raise an eyebrow tiredly at Ralphie.

Arnold choked on his mallowblaster next to her. Tim thumped him on the back.

They lounged around for another twenty minutes before finally deciding to pack up and continue their journey. They knew they had to start picking up the pace if they didn't want to hike in the dark.

Wanda walked up to the divisions in the road and tried to come up with a definite conclusion as to where they should head next. Beside her, DA looked hopelessly at her now useless guide, completely caked with mud, and sighed sadly.

Wanda took a deep breath, looking helplessly at the different paths. She knitted her brows and nodded to herself. "Yes... yes, ok. I think..." She turned to the group looking certain of herself. "I think we should split up..."

There was a silence where only the natural sounds of the forest: the birds chirping, a river someways off roaring down to the ocean, and the buzzing of the little bugs flying around, could be heard.

"Split up..." Arnold said finally. He was looking at Wanda as if she had gone insane. "Are you crazy?!"

"Arnold's right," Keesha said, frowning at Wanda. "There's no way that'll help our situation. Not only would we be lost, but we'd have lost each other as well."

Wanda frowned right back at Keesha and placed her hands on her hips. "Keesha," she said angrily, "Do you _really_ think I'm so stupid as to have such an idiotic idea of us splitting up, without being absolutely sure we wouldn't get into any trouble for it first?"

Her companions all eyed each other uncomfortably; Wanda could see their distrust all too well. She sighed in frustration.

"_Listen_ to me," she insisted. "I may not be able to remember every little nook and cranny on this trail, but I'm absolutely, one hundred percent sure that each and every one of these trails eventually leads down to the town by the bed and breakfast. _One hundred_ _percent sure_."

"So we'll all end up in the town?" Tim asked doubtfully.

"Well, all of us except for the two that get to my aunts place first," Wanda continued. Her eyes skimmed the group carefully. "Then they'll hike the rest of the way to the town - which is only about a fifteen minute hike - and let the rest of the group know."

There was a pause. None of the others spoke for a moment, obviously thinking it over.

"She's right," DA said after a while, thinking back to when the map had been in readable condition. "The trails do all meet in the town."

"Great!" Wanda clapped her hands together, evidently satisfied. "It's settled."

"Wait, wait, wait," Keesha held up a hand. "We still haven't decided whether or not it's a good idea."

Wanda folded her arms around her chest. "Well, then, do you have a better one?"

Keesha thought for a moment, then sighed in frustration. "No! No, I don't have a better idea... But I really do think we should stay together. Anything could happen."

"Some of us have cell phones right?" Ralphie asked, reaching into his pocket for his own. "The connection isn't lost on mine..." He looked at Keesha. "I'd be up for it."

Keesha looked around at each member of their group and saw that every one of them looked more than willing to do anything that didn't involve standing around the clearing and not moving. "Fine!" she cried, throwing up her hands in defeat. It's the plan..." she bit her lip, still looking worried. "Who else has a cell phone?"

"Me," said Tim, pointing to his backpack.

"Me," said Carlos, pulling out his own.

"Me too," Phoebe replied. "My mom refused to let me go without it."

"Anyone else?" Keesha asked.

Dorothy Ann, Wanda, and Arnold shook their heads and Wanda added. "I broke mine last week..."

"Ok then," Keesha said, thinking. "So, it's even... we can split up into four groups then..." she looked at the four forks further ahead on the path. "Perfect... I guess..." She turned back to look at everyone. "Ok... so Carlos, you said you have one? Okay, you can go with DA. Phoebe, you and Arnold."

Phoebe turned faintly pink, and Arnold nodded, looking over at Wanda quickly before taking his place next to Phoebe.

"Ralphie and I can go together," Tim offered.

"And... so I guess I'm with Wanda," Keesha finished.

"Sounds good," Wanda said. She looked at her watch. "Well, we'd better get a move on if we want to get there on time. It should, at most, take us two hours to get to the town from here. Sorry it wasn't planned better..."

"Hey, it's alright Wan," Phoebe said. "We're having fun. It's not like we have _no_ idea where we're going. It'll just take us longer..."

"Yeah," Keesha said. "We still owe you big for this trip."

Wanda grinned. "Yeah, yeah you do." She laughed.

"Alright Ralphie, get the lead out. We're going to be the first to the resort!" Tim ordered his partner, pushing Ralphie onto the nearest fork, the one going far left through the trees.

"Why are you picking this one?" Ralphie asked.

"Just a hunch," Tim said.

"Yeah, well we have a hunch about this one. Come on DA!" Carlos took a hold of her elbow and pulled her over to the trail on the far right. Dorothy Ann let herself be dragged off, not having any idea herself which one they should have taken.

"Which one Wanda?" Keesha asked her partner. Wanda shrugged, not wanting to give out any more directions herself. In the end, they chose the side fork the farthest left, which left Phoebe and Arnold to take the path straight ahead.

* * *

**This chapter and the first ones were just setting up the story. I admit I kind of wanted to get them over with. Now the story, with all it's shippy goodness, can really begin!**

**Reviews are nice :)**


	3. Of Meadows and Bears

Phoebe scratched the side of her nose (this one was third mosquito bite since the start of the trip!) and looked at the new sign on the trail warily. There wasn't another fork - thank goodness - but the message did look ominous. The sign looked rather new too, like it had been put up recently. The post it was nailed onto, however, was quite moldy and covered in age old moss. She heard the crunching of dry leaves and a gasping breath and felt Arnold come up behind her.

"Beware of - bears?!" he asked, hushed. He was a bit out of breath and he spoke with a voice suggesting a stuffy nose. Phoebe guessed it was from all the pollen in the air. "I knew it. I knew there was something to worry about!" He sighed in frustration and collapsed on a large rock next to the rotting, wooden post.

"How much longer do you think it's going to take us," Phoebe asked him, sitting down in the dirt next to the boulder. She leaned back against the cool rock face and looked up at the sky poking through the thicket of trees. "The sun looks like it's setting..." And indeed the sky was beginning to turn as orange as Arnold's hair.

"Knowing my luck, it'll be dark long before we make it to the resort," Arnold said glumly, putting his chin in his hands.

"Hey cheer up Arnold," Phoebe said gently. "We'll be there soon." She suddenly realized that her hand had been reaching up to touch his shoulder to comfort him, but she quickly thought better of it, and brought it back to her side.

It was all too obvious he wasn't enjoying the trip so far, which disappointed her slightly. Sure things hadn't gone according to plan, but Phoebe for one, was very glad they didn't.

How could anyone feel miserable in a place like this? Phoebe breathed in the earthy air deeply; it was fresh and very piney from all the evergreens. Here they were, alone with nature. It was quiet too. Very peaceful. Now that she was away from Wanda and her shrill voice, she could enjoy the serenity even more. She could hear the gentle gurgling of the tiny stream running next to the boulder she was sitting on. The birds were whistling softly, their voices mixed into the gentle breeze.

But she knew she wouldn't have been enjoying this half as much if her companion had been another. Here she was, alone with Arnold, with no Wanda to distract him, and for how much longer she didn't know. Phoebe sighed morosely. _Why_ did she have to be shy with things like these? _Wanda_ could have could have touched his shoulder. That strong, comforting looking shoulder... Rising up and down slowly beneath his beige shirt... Phoebe wondered what it would have felt like to rest her head against it... would it be soft... comforting... and what if he put his arms around her too...

"Hey," Arnold said suddenly, lifting his head out of his hands. "Does your cell phone still have a connection? Maybe we can call Wanda and see if she made it yet."

Phoebe was unwillingly snapped back into reality. "You mean Keesha," she corrected. "Keesha has the cell phone."

Arnold shrugged and removed his glasses. "Doesn't matter, they left together didn't they?" he wasn't looking at her; he was looking down at his glasses while he cleaned them with the bottom of his T-shirt.

Phoebe turned away from him and pulled her phone out of the pocket. She looked at it for a moment before sighing. "No... no we lost the connection."

"Great!" Arnold exclaimed, standing up. Phoebe quickly followed suit. "We lost the connection, we lost our friends, and we're lost in the mountains!"

Phoebe placed the phone back in her pocket and looked back at her distraught companion. "It could be worse you know Arnold."

"Yeah? How?" he sighed and gestured at the continuing dirt path. "We should keep walking if we don't want to be lost here at night."

"Well you could be completely alone," Phoebe said, following him. _Or you could have ended up alone with Wanda_, she thought to herself as she pulled back a few branches out of her path. The trees were getting thicker and thicker and the path narrower and narrower. Sometimes it didn't even look like there was a path. Phoebe felt one of the branches scratch her arms as she made her way out of the thicket and crashed into Arnold as soon as she was free of the brambles.

"Sorry," she jumped back. "I couldn't see where- " she suddenly stopped speaking. Now it became clear as to why Arnold had stopped so abruptly in his path. It was that there was no path to continue on. There was a large obstruction now directly in front of the two of them in the form of a large rock. Arnold walked right up to it, placed his hands on the grey formation, and looked up.

The rock looked around three times as tall as him, and looked like it would be a slippery climb. Phoebe looked down at her feet. At least her hiking boots had a good grip. She turned back to Arnold and wondered if he was thinking the same thing as her.

"Should we climb it?" Phoebe asked. "It doesn't look like we can go around." She turned to her left first, and then her right. It wasn't a cliff, but it was fairly wide. Going around it might have been too much trouble. The trees grew thickly around the edges and - were those prickle bushes?

Phoebe rubbed the side of her arm; she would prefer it if there were no itchy cuts on her pale skin.

"Hang on..." Arnold said, examining the rock face. "Phoebe, look at the texture of this thing! It has the same pattern as a Chickadee egg!"

"Arnold..." Phoebe looked back up at the sky. "The sun..."

"Right, right. Hang on, let me just get a sample," he slipped his backpack off his shoulder and started to dig inside of it. He pulled out a plastic bag and a small pick. "You can go ahead and start climbing it," he said to Phoebe without turning around. "I'll catch up."

"Alright," Phoebe agreed, and she placed both hands on the smooth surface of the rock face. Her shoes had a better grip than she thought, but she still slipped a few times on her way up. Bits of the rock crumbled under her weight and tumbled down to the dirt below. Phoebe turned anxiously around to see if Arnold was in the way of any of them, but she didn't see him down there.

"Hey."

She jumped and turned around quickly to her left. Arnold had already caught up and, when she had flinched, Phoebe had slipped down a little further. Arnold held out a hand for her.

"Do you need some help?"

Phoebe felt a little hesitant about taking it. She knew her own hands were covered in dirt and now had tiny bits of rock sticking to the sweat. But in the end, Arnold made the decision for her and he helped haul her up to the peak of the rock. His hand was warm, Phoebe noted, all too aware of how red her face was getting - he'd mistake it for the strain in exercise she was sure - and the hand was also very secure and strong.

"Now we just slide down I suppose," Phoebe said, face still very bright, after Arnold had released her hand.

"You first," Arnold said, and he gave her a little push downwards. Rock having substantially more friction than ice or the plastic of a slide, Phoebe only slid down a few feet. Her and Arnold therefore ended up using some sort of variation of the crab walk to get themselves down the rest of the way.

"Awn... I snagged my shirt on it!" Arnold said sadly, looking at the bottom of his shirt when the two of them had both their feet on the dirt trail again. Phoebe saw there was indeed a tear, not too big, but big enough for her to catch a small glimpse of his stomach. Feeling the heat rush up to her cheeks again, Phoebe quickly turned away from him and in the direction the path was going. She suddenly gasped.

"Arnold! Look!"

Beside her, Arnold looked up from his shirt next to her. He yelped and jumped backwards into the rock face. "Phoebe," he said, quickly and so quietly that Phoebe had to lean over to him to catch it. "Phoebe, I think it'd be wise if we started running about now."

"But Arnold," Phoebe protested. "It's just a baby - "

"Don't go near it!" Arnold suddenly jumped forward as Phoebe made a motion to move closer to it. "It's still a _bear_!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"It's all alone," Phoebe said, turning back at him. Her eyes widened in panic. "What if it's lost it's mother?!" She looked at the cub again. It looked very young and it was still relatively small for it's species. The combination of light brown hair around the long nose and beady eyes made it even cuter than Arnold was in her eyes.

"It didn't lose it's mother!" Arnold said desperately, still trying to convince her to slowly slink away into the trees with him. "It's mother's here and ready to eat us because she thinks we'll attack her cub!"

"You don't know that Arnold!" Phoebe said crossly. She looked back at the cub and bit her lip. It was pulling berries off a nearby bush and paying them no attention. "No sign of a mother!" Phoebe declared angrily. "Where is she Arnold?!"

"I don't know! But she must be here somewhere!" Arnold looked at Phoebe pleadingly. "We have to get out of here before she comes!"

"But - "

"Phoebe - " he stopped. Phoebe saw all the colour drain from his face and herself felt a knot tighten in her stomach. She could suddenly hear the trees behind them rustling violently. He was right. The mother bear was here, and she was getting closer by the minute.

Phoebe whimpered, suddenly feeling very afraid, and clutched onto Arnold's arm as tightly as she could.

xxx

"This was the stupidest idea you've ever had," DA growled angrily as she climbed carefully over a nurse log lying in the middle of the autumn meadow. "And you've had some pretty stupid ones in the past. _Take the left fork here, it's going to get us to the cabin first DA. Those aren't prickle bushes!!_"

Carlos didn't say anything at first. He had to disagree with her on this one - like most of what she believed in. Sure, the prickle bushes had been annoying, that was true, but he was sure this trail was shorter. However, he didn't mention that at present; they had already had three arguments since the group had split up and Carlos didn't feel like going through another one right now. So he merely said, "Can you hand me the cell phone."

"It lost the connection an hour ago Carlos," DA said, but reached into her bag and handed it over to him anyways. "We're lost and we've lost them." She exhaled miserably and flopped down onto the rotting wood of the log she had just stepped over. She wearily realized that she had just sat on a mushroom.

"What, why are you stopping? Don't tell me you're getting tired," Carlos teased.

Dorothy Ann glared at him. "No I'm not. I just don't think we should keep walking since we have no idea where we are. How could I have dropped the map in that mud! The librarian's going to be furious..."

"Ah, it's funner this way," Carlos said, turning his back on her. "You'll be telling your grandkids this story one day."

"Oh yeah?!" Dorothy Ann jumped right back on her feet and stormed off through the dry grass after him. "Which part? The one where we saw that squirrel run up that tree, when you stepped on a stick, freaked out, and jumped backwards onto my foot, or when you found that rock shaped like Arnold's head?"

"You did put it in your bag, right?"

DA rolled her eyes. "Not only are we lost, but I'm beginning to think we're not going to make it into the town at all before it gets dark! I'm almost starting to wish I'd stayed - "

"Don't you go turning into Arnold!" Carlos warned. "What, you think we'll have a run in with a Sasquatch or something?" Carlos paused. "Actually that would be kind of cool... Can you hand me my camera?"

DA rolled her eyes, but couldn't help suppress a hint of a smile and gave it to him. "We're not going to find a Sasquatch, Carlos. I wouldn't get my hopes up."

"What, you don't believe in Bigfoot?" Carlos asked, putting the strap of the camera around his neck.

"No," DA said, pulling her new hiking boots out of a patch of mud she had just missed noticing. "And I sincerely hope you don't believe in such nonsense either."

"Well, I don't really believe in Bigfoot," Carlos admitted, walking around the mud Dorothy Ann had just discovered. "but I do believe some pretty crazy things. For example, I think it's possible for a human to travel to all the planets of the solar system in one school day, to shrink to the size of molecules - "

"Ok Carlos - "

"To turn into hawks - "

"Ok - "

"And bats."

"Carlos - "

"And fish - "

"I get it!" DA snapped. "You're right, you're right!"

Carlos grinned. "Course..."

Dorothy Ann glared at him. "Why are you so confident about this path anyway?" she asked curiously as they made their way further through the meadow.

"I've been here a few times - I didn't start at the same parking lot we did today, but as soon as I saw that other fork, I knew this was the path that took the shortest time to get to town," Carlos answered.

"You didn't know the prickle bushes would be there."

"You expect me to remember every little detail?"

Dorothy Ann didn't reply so the two of them walked in silence for the next few minutes. Dorothy Ann was now just concentrating on where to put her feet. There were too many hidden mud piles around and - a little creek she had just narrowly avoided stepping in. Carlos saw it too. He unscrewed the lid of his water bottle and bent down next to it to fill it up. Dorothy Ann joined him on the ground to do the same with hers.

"Do you think we'll make to the bed and breakfast before dark?" she asked him, looking up at the orange sky worriedly.

"No problem," Carlos said, screwing the lid back onto his water bottle. "We'll have time to spare."

"That sort of confidence is going to come back one day and get you Carlos," Dorothy Ann said tiredly. "And that day might just be today."

"We'll see," Carlos said. "Hey, do you think - " he stopped suddenly and Dorothy Ann jumped, reacting to the same sound.

A loud, high pitched shriek had just sounded, moving over the treetops down to the meadow Carlos and DA were sitting in. They both looked at each other, startled, and wide eyed.

"That sounded like Phoebe!" DA gasped. She stood up quickly, followed almost immediately by Carlos.

"Come on," Carlos said anxiously and he started moving quickly over to what he remembered as the direction of the sound. DA hurried after him quickly, wondering what on earth had caused Phoebe - and she was almost absolutely sure it _had_ been Phoebe - to scream like that. She shook her head to get rid of the image of her and Arnold being attacked by a Sasquatch and broke into a run after Carlos in the direction of the trees.

Temporarily blinded with concern for their friend, Carlos and Dorothy Ann unwittingly plunged further and further away from the path until the chances of ever finding their way back, or seeing any of their friends again that day, was almost razor thin.

* * *

**Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the other four :)**

**Next chapter will hopefully come soon.**

**Review!**


	4. And it Gets Dark

It was when Phoebe let out that bloodcurdling scream loud enough for the devil to hear, Arnold wished more than ever that his ears had the power to shrivel up. His heart beating furiously, Arnold clamped a firm hand on her mouth before she could do it again.

His mind was blank; he hadn't been in a situation that looked this bad since the third grade - and at least then there was always a frizzy haired teacher to save them at the last moment. Arnold seriously doubted they would be that lucky this time.

_Help._

The word ran through his head over and over again. It was all he could do besides looking hopelessly for any possibly means of escape.

The object of Phoebe's scream was now standing a mere ten feet away from them. Just as alarmed by the sudden noise as Arnold had been, the mother black bear had turned menacingly towards the two of them, in front of her cub. It had briefly lifted itself up by just it's enormous back two feet, which was what had alarmed Phoebe so terribly, but now it was standing securely on all fours. Phoebe was quiet now, his hand pulled back from her mouth, and she pressed her cheek into his side.

"What do we do," she mumbled helplessly.

Arnold's breathing was very uneven as he looked around himself wildly for anything that could help them. You couldn't run from a bear, that much he knew, but then what was your other option? Backing away slowly? He swallowed and managed to back up an inch or so before he hit the rock. Now what?

Wait. The rock...

Carefully, and very aware their time was limited by the way the black bear seemed to be glaring at them, it's ears folded back, Arnold reached out with the hand that wasn't around Phoebe and hit the smooth rock face with his palm.

He looked down between his feet and saw something that made his heart soar and his breath even slightly. "Phoebe," he said softly, not entirely sure why he was whispering. "Phoebe, look behind you. At the base of the rock."

Phoebe's eyes were locked on the bear, terrified. It was turning it's head from one side to another. Arnold had no idea what that meant and wished he had asked Dorothy Ann what she knew about bear body language before they had split up. Figuring their time was limited, Phoebe green eyes moved to where he was pointing and widened. She had seen what he'd seen.

There was a thin opening at the base of the rock, just big enough for the two of them to squeeze through. Phoebe crouched down slowly, not taking her eyes off the bear while she did, and peered through the crooked hole.

"Is it hollow enough?" Arnold asked, still in a whisper, eyes darting back and forth between the bear and Phoebe. "Get in, quickly!"

"Yes! It's just like a beaver dam, Arnold!" Phoebe said breathlessly, grabbing onto his hand and pulling him down. The bear moved slightly at the rapid movement and Phoebe shrieked again. Legs first, she slipped through the little crack and tugged on Arnold's sleeve so he would do the same. Arnold needed no such encouragement. He crawled into the hole as fast as he could and made it in before the bear could do any damage.

Heads bent uncomfortably, Phoebe and Arnold slid backwards as far as they could until they felt the inside of the rock hit their backs. Arnold saw the bear poke it's nose through the crack, but it was too big to fit. Phoebe let out a deep breath of relief next to him, but still kept a firm grip on his arm, her nails were digging into his skin but that was the least of Arnold's worries right now.

"Go away!" Phoebe cried to the bear. "We didn't hurt your baby, honest! We wouldn't!"

"Phoebe," Arnold said tensely, "You're talking to a _bear_."

She didn't say anything else, and merely replied by burying her head into his chest. Arnold placed a hand on her auburn hair and stroked it slowly. Comforting her seemed to put him at ease somehow. He chose to look down at her instead of the the bear, still waiting just outside the crack. Arnold hoped it would just give up soon and leave.

xxx

After barreling through three more prickle bushes(the blackberry variety), splashing through two rivers, and tripping over four rocks each, Carlos and Dorothy Ann had given up their search, and bitterly excepted defeat.

Panting heavily, her head swimming madly, Dorothy Ann collapsed on the dirt ground. She felt very dizzy, not used to straining herself this much; she had been trying to find the source of the noise fast and catch up to Carlos all in one. Feeling this woozy, she was now starting to think she had imagined the noise as Phoebe. It really could have been anything. A bird even.

"Check the cell phone," Carlos said anxiously, crouching down next to her, not nearly as out of breath as she was. Dorothy Ann flopped down on her back, hardly feeling the dull pain hitting the rocks on the ground caused, and pointed to her pack soundlessly.

Carlos found it immediately and pulled it out. "Hey!" he slapped DA on the shoulder. Dorothy Ann groaned. "Hey, DA we have a connection!"

Dorothy Ann suddenly felt very alert. She sat up quickly and said hurriedly to Carlos, "Call Phoebe's phone! Hurry!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm dialing!" Carlos did so and held the phone up to his ear, plugging the other ear with his finger. "It's really fuzzy... I - Phoebe?!" He turned to Dorothy Ann excitedly. "It's Phoebe, she's alive!" He looked back away, onto the ground. "Hey, Phoebe? What? Phoebe I can't hear you? Phoebe? Phoebe?!" He took the phone away from his ear. "Crap, we lost it again."

"But she's okay!" Dorothy Ann smiled and felt like throwing her arms around Carlos in relief - she restrained herself though. "She's alive! And now we can get back to - " She looked around at her surrounding and her grin faltered. "Uh oh..."

"Crap..." Carlos said again, now thinking along the same lines as Dorothy Ann. "We lost the trail..."

Dorothy Ann bit her lip. Her heart rate finally beginning to slow down, she took a deep breath and soaked in her surroundings. Where they were, she had absolutely no clue. All she knew was that they were definitely not in the meadow anymore.

She curled her fingers subconsciously on the ground below and felt the dirty rocks underneath her skin. She wasn't sitting on a path, merely a cluster of pebbles in the middle of a tightly packed gathering of trees. An enormous blackberry bush grew on her left side.

Dorothy Ann could hear a river raging on some distance away, and the normal twitter of nearby birds. She reached up and tightened the band around her blond hair just so she could do something with her fidgeting handswhile she thought. Carlos pocketed the cell phone and turned to her.

"What now?"

xxx

"Wanda," Keesha said angrily as the two of them made their way slowly down the cliff of rocks. "You said we'd be in the town in two hours! It's been nearly five!"

"I told you I have no idea where I'm going didn't I?" Wanda snapped as she jumped back onto the solid ground below. "Not one measly little clue!"

"You could have told us before we left!" Keesha hollered back. She joined her fuming companion on the ground and looked up at the sky with a sinking heart. It was already three shades darker blue. Keesha huffed and turned to Wanda. "Now it's dark! We'll never find our way!"

"I know!" Wanda slumped down on a pile of rocks near the bottom of the hill they had just cleared and put her chin in her hands. "I know. I'm really sorry Keesha," and she meant it. She sighed miserably and said "Honestly. I didn't know we'd get into such a mess."

She really did look so sorry that Keesha felt her anger ebb away and she joined her friend on the rocks and put an arm around her. "It's okay... I know you didn't mean to get us into this mess. Sorry I yelled."

"Sorry I yelled back..." Wanda said glumly. She rubbed her bare arms. "So what do we do now?"

Keesha thought for a moment. Her stomach rumbled. "A fire?" she suggested to Wanda. "And dinner."

Wanda nodded and said, "I'll get the firewood, you can see what we can have for dinner from our packs... maybe I'll pick up a few berries on the way." And she got up without another word and starting heading into the trees.

"Don't go too far!" Keesha called after her. She heard Wanda shout 'duh!' as a reply. Keesha sighed and started searching through her backpack for something she hadn't eaten at lunchtime.

xxx

"I'm f-f-f-freezing!" Ralphie shivered, rubbing the sides of his bare arms furiously in an attempt to warm up.

Tim, who was just as cold although slightly better equipt with a wooly jacket, asked, "D-don't you have a jacket? I-in your duffle bag?"

"T - t- too c-cold to g-get it!"

"Oh for crying out loud. Well then stop complaining..."

"H - how about we s-stop and make a f-f-f-fire!"

Tim stopped on the trail and turned to Ralphie, "That is the best idea I've heard all day." Tim frowned, putting his hands on his hips. "Who would have guessed it would have come from you..."

"Hey! I've been known to come up with a few brilliant ideas in the past," Ralphie said proudly, pointing to his chest. When he saw the completely unimpressed look on Tim's face, he stopped. Ralphie then dropped his duffle bag and began rummaging through it. His jacket had been stuffed into the very bottom so he emptied almost the entire pack before extracting it. Ralphie pulled on his coat and grumbled the whole time he was cramming everything else back in.

"I guess we're going to camp out here then..." Tim said slowly, looking around doubtfully at the trees. "It's getting so dark I can't see the trail anymore - hey! Where are you going?!"

"To g-get firewood!" Ralphie called back, out of Tim's sight. "I'll be back soon!" he added, crawling over a large rock at the base of a tree. He winced as he stubbed a toe on a root.

The forest was very dark now and Ralphie could hardly tell where he was going. He made sure not to move too far away from Tim and walked very carefully, picking up the small sticks littering the ground.

The forest at night was a truly terrifying place. A rapids-broken stream could be heard somewhere off in the distance, an owl hooted somewhere nearby... Ralphie breathed in deeply, trying to calm himself down and think logically. His nose burned with cold and his fingers were numb, he could hardly feel the sticks he was holding.

The wind was playing with the branches hanging off the trees - or was it the wind? Maybe it was a bear, or two bears... a wolf? A werewolf, Vampires...?!

Ralphie shook his head. He would not let his imagination go into overdrive right now. Or else Tim might find him cowering under a bush brandishing a twig at anyone who dared get close.

His rare moment of rationality disappeared the moment he thought it. Or, to be more precise, the moment he heard the crack of a twig that had most definitely not been caused by his own two feet.

Ralphie whirled at the sound of the snap, and almost tripped over another root in the process. He froze. He held in his breath and wanted nothing more than to be able to calm his furiously beating heart. Whatever had stepped on and broken the stick was coming closer - he could hear it brushing past the branches - and whatever is was, it was going to get him.

Wait. Ralphie tightened his grip on the pile of sticks, prepared to use them as weapons if worst came to worst. It was probably Tim; Tim coming to scare him. Right, well Ralphie wasn't going to stand for that. Ralphie's grasp hardened and he shifted his glance to the dim outlines of the trees in front of him.

"Alright Tim!" he said loudly, forgetting he was supposed to stay as silent as the grave. "Come out, I know it's you. It's not going to work!"

The rustling stopped, and Ralphie could have sworn he had heard a sharp intake of breath. "What?"

One of the sticks broke in Ralphie's tight grip. That wasn't Tim... But - it _was_ familiar. Ralphie cleared his tight throat. "W - Wanda?"

"Ralphie?!" The rustling of the trees got louder and more violent. Ralphie dropped the pile of wood and stumbled throught the brambles and bushes towards her voice.

"Wanda?!"

"Ralphie! Ralphie, where are you!"

"I'm - " Ralphie was brought to a sudden stop. He had just found Wanda - ran into her actually. The wind was nearly knocked out of him when she threw her arms around him and buried her face into his chest. "Here.." Ralphie finished. He cleared his throat, Wanda wasn't letting go. And suddenly, he rose in a panicky dismay that had nothing to do with being in a cold, dark forest at night. Why wasn't she letting go...?!

Although he couldn't help notice she was very warm.. Ralphie put his arms around her in return, so that he was at least doing something.

"Oh thank God!" Wanda mumbled into his chest. "I thought I'd never see any of you again!" She tightened her grip. "I'm so sorry I got us all into this mess! I don't know what to do! Keesha and I can't even build a stupid fire!"

"I thought you were a vampire or something coming to get me!" Ralphie said, wildly looking for things to say. He was getting more and more uncomfortable by the minute.

Wanda finally let go and took one step back from him. From the dim light the moon was giving off in the sky above, he could see she now looked like she was trying not to roll her eyes.

"Ralphie! Don't be stu - "

"Where's Keesha?" Ralphie interrupted. He didn't need to hear how irrational he was sometimes right now.

"Back there," Wanda said, pointing. She took a hold of his hand, hers as ice cold as his. "Come on, let's get Tim and go back. You didn't run into any of the others did you?"

Ralphie shook his head, "No."

He heard Wanda take a deep breath. "Okay. Okay, just Tim then." And, hand still in hers, Ralphie took the lead as the two of them made their way through the trees to find Tim. Ralphie tried not to think about where the others were or how they were coping; or even if they were still alive...

xxx

Dorothy Ann shivered violently as she walked. Her bare legs burned like they were coated with ice. Her teeth chattered and she wished more than anything she had brought a thicker jacket. She turned jealously to Carlos. What were the chances of _him_ coming better prepared than her?! She brings the map, the flashlight, the extra food, the book on animal wildlife, and he gets all the points for bringing the thick jacket! He wasn't even shivering! Dorothy Ann tried to grit her chattering teeth, and he wasn't even paying attention to her in her frozen state.

"C-can we p-please stop s-s-somewhere and b-build a fire?!" she chattered when she could stand it no more.

That's when he finally turned to look at her. Carlos frowned. "Is that the only jacket you brought?"

"Y-yes," Dorothy Ann chattered. Of course it was the only one! She wasn't some idiot who wore the thin jacket when the thick one was available to her. "Why else would I be wearing this thin one in this cold?!"

"Well why didn't you say anything?" Carlos asked. And Dorothy Ann felt her eyes widen as she saw him taking off his own. "Here," he said, tossing it at her. Dorothy Ann caught it with numb fingers.

"T- thanks..." she stuttered, quickly pulling it on before his warmth left it.

"Better?" Carlos asked, shining the flashlight into her face. Dorothy Ann held up her hands to protect her from the glare and nodded.

"Can we stop somewhere and build a fire?" she asked. "Like over - there!" she suddenly gasped and pointed. Carlos moved the flashlight from her face into the direction Dorothy Ann was pointing. "It's a cave!"

"Probably has bats or something," Carlos said, although he looked just as happy as Dorothy Ann at their discovery.

"I don't care. Just so long as it gets us out of this _wind_!" Dorothy Ann said, breaking into a jog towards the mouth.

Carlos jogged along side her, the flashlight bouncing in his grip. "Pick up as many sticks as you can find," he said. "So we can built a fire."

DA did what she was instructed and, by the time the two of them settled next to the mouth of the cave, they had two hefty armfuls of wood between them. Dorothy Ann dumped her pile on top of Carlos before digging through her bag for some matches and a pair of long pants. "What time is it?" she asked, not looking up from her rummaging.

Carlos illuminated his watch. "Five thirty... Man it gets dark soon..."

"And cold," Dorothy Ann added, pulling his jacket around herself tighter. She handed him the matches. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Keep the jacket," he said firmly. "I don't need you turning into a popsicle on top of everything else." He struck one of the matches and held it close to the kindling. "Hey, what do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?"

Dorothy Ann groaned. "Carlos, now is not the time or place - "

"Frostbite! Get it! I - okay I'll stop..." Carlos turned away from DA's icy glare and back to the kindling. "Geeze, just trying to lighten the mood."

"Could you do it with fewer stomach churning puns?" Dorothy Ann pulled her long pants over her shorts while he tended to the fire.

"You like them... You just don't want to admit it."

"Right.."

Just then, a gust of wind blew where they were settled and the little flame Carlos had produced went out. Dorothy Ann shivered again and hoped they would be able to get a warm fire going soon; or, wondered if they'd even be able to just make it through the night.

* * *

**I'm planning on having the next chapter being mostly C/DA :) .**

**Reviews make me happy :)**


	5. 20 Questions

"'Two atoms are walking down the street and they run into each other. One says to the other, 'Are you all right?' 'No, I lost an electron!' 'Are you sure?' The second atom replies, 'Yeah, I'm positive'"

Carlos laughed at his own joke, but Dorothy Ann on the other hand, looked rather unimpressed. "Um - do you maybe want to do something else?" she groaned. Carlos saw her shift slightly closer to the warm fire they had finally gotten to keep at a steady burn.

The cave they were in was quite cold, though it did shelter them from the icy wind outside, and, with the fire crackling merrily by the mouth of the cave, it didn't bother him too much. Only his ears and fingers were uncomfortably cold. Carlos repositioned himself closer to the flames.

His stomach suddenly growled. Dorothy Ann and himself had eaten almost every morsel of food they had leftover from lunch and he was still hungry. It was from all that hiking. If he had known he wouldn't have made it to the cabin before dinnertime, he would have packed a lot more food. He didn't want to ask Dorothy Ann if she still had a candy bar or something in her bag that she didn't mind sharing, so he looked at his watch to try and get his mind away from his empty stomach.

It wasn't even seven o'clock. Now Carlos began wondering how on earth they would sleep in here. The floor of the cave was nothing but rocks and very packed dirt. He supposed they could sleep on the soft bed of mud a little ways a way from the fire, but - he smirked imagining what the look on Dorothy Ann's face would be if he suggested that.

Carlos shivered and rubbed his arms. His sweater was rather thin, but he wasn't even thinking of asking for his jacket back. Sleeping on the rocks and ground here would drain both of them of their heat in no time, no matter how close they slept to the fire. He looked worriedly at Dorothy Ann who had pulled out a book on - he couldn't quite read the title - and was trying to read it by the firelight. Her socials textbook?! Anyways... he wondered if she had been thinking along the same lines as him.

He sighed, and though he was feeling very tired, didn't have any inclination for sleep. He thought for a moment, trying to think of something to say. The silence was killing him. "How about we play twenty questions?" he finally suggested.

He heard Dorothy Ann sigh next to him, but she did look up from her book; the light was too dim. She raised her eyebrows tiredly.

"Hey, do you have any better ideas?" Carlos asked.

DA paused. She looked like she was in deep thought, as usual. He cleared his throat and she jumped. "No..." she said finally, defeated. "Might as well. I suppose..."

"Okay, what's your favourite colour?"

What?" Dorothy Ann stuffed her book back into her bag and looked at him, frowning. "Are you serious."

Carlos shrugged. "Sure."

"You've known me for how long and you still don't know my favorite colour?" she asked indignantly, folding her arms across her chest.

"Well, what's mine?" Carlos countered. He grinned at the dumbstruck look Dorothy Ann gave him.

"My favorite colour is violet," Dorothy Ann said, choosing not to answer the last question for herself. He saw her move forward, away from the side of the rock cave she had been resting her back on, and nearer to the fire. "Now what's yours?"

He ignored her question. "Why violet?"

DA shrugged; she wasn't looking at him anymore, staring at the flames instead. "Just because. What's yours?"

"Well you have to have a reason for liking it above all the other colours of the rainbow." He was starting to bug her now, he knew, but he just loved those expressions she gave him when he did.

"I think it's pretty, that's all," Dorothy Ann said impatiently. "What's yours then?"

Carlos shrugged, he really had no idea. Hardly ever given it a second thought. Wait...

"Blue," he said.

"Blue, why blue?"

Her eyes. He had just remembered. It was difficult to make out their colour at the moment because of the dim lighting the fire gave off, but damn it was hard for him to tear his own eyes away from those baby blues when the sun reflected in them. He didn't tell her any of this though, she'd probably never look at him again. "Just because," he answered simply. "Would you rather have no eyes or no ears?"

Dorothy Ann looked at him disgustedly. "Carlos, what kind of question - "

Carlos shrugged. He wasn't really sure why he'd asked it either. He saw DA shake her head, trying to suppress a smile.

"No ears, you?"

"No eyes," he replied. "I'd miss the shrill sound of your disapproving voice after a while." Dorothy Ann narrowed her eyes. Well, thought Carlos, it was true; he would miss it. It was funny; her voice drove him insane like no other, but he'd rather loose his eyes than live without it.

"Lose a finger or lose a toe?" he asked next.

"Carlos, this is getting stupid, even for you," Dorothy Ann sighed. "We already know everything there is to know about each other. Except favorite colour. We've known each other for ages."

"I wouldn't say everything," Carlos said slowly. There were a few questions he was dying to ask her. Questions he had never quite been able to ask. But in the dark, cold, dangerous atmosphere of the cave, with only her as company, he had a feeling they'd finally manage to slip out tonight. It may or may not have been one of the reasons he wanted to play twenty questions in the first place... verses him actually being bored. How _could_ he be bored? He was lost in the mountains, God knows where, alone in a cave with her. There was nothing that could bore him about the situation.

"Do you sing in the shower?" he finally asked. No, it wasn't what he'd really wanted to ask, but he just wasn't ready yet. A person had to be ready for this sort of thing, or they'd screw it up. Actually, when it came to Dorothy Ann, he _always_ managed to screw things up, no matter how carefully he had previously planned the situation out in his head.

"No, I don't," Dorothy Ann replied and she hugged her knees with her hands. "And um - oh I don't know... what's the worst thing someone has ever said to you?"

Now _that_ was an interesting question... He had never actually thought of it before. Damn, she could really make him think sometimes. He stayed quiet for a moment, staring into the crackling flames, trying to recall.

Dorothy Ann noticed him going silent and added, "What's said in the cave, stays in the cave. I won't tell anyone."

"I didn't think you would," Carlos said, moving closer to the fire, and, consequently, closer to her. "I'm just trying to remember..."

"Oh..."

The worst thing someone had ever said to him? No one ever said anything nasty to him - at least not to his face. He was quite well liked at school - even by the teachers. He suddenly frowned. He had just remembered something that had struck him particularly hard. It wasn't nasty or anything even remotely cruel - or rather, meant to be cruel. One of his best friends had actually said it. Only two weeks ago..

'_I like her a lot Carlos.'_

Okay, so that part had been okay. He had actually been paying a lot more attention to the ball he had been tossing up and down while he lay on his back on Tim's bed. "Oh yeah?" was his inattentive reply. "Who?"

"You...you know, um.."

Carlos remembered sitting up at this point, his curiosity rising. Tim had never looked as nervous as he did then. "I know her do I? It's not Janet is it?"

Tim had given him a rather icy glare for the mocking question. "No! Geeze, what kind of guy do you think I - "

"Who then," he then started tossing the tennis ball on the hardwood floor and catching it as it came up again.

Tim had taken a deep breath. "It's... it's Dorothy Ann, Carlos."

The bounced ball landed on his head; his whole body had gone numb. But was that the worst thing that had happened? No... no, it was what came shortly after that cut through him like a knife.

"So um..." his throat had gone very dry at this point. He tried to control it, he tried as hard as he could not to jump up from the bed and strangle Tim with all his might - honestly where had all that aggression come from all of a sudden? "Um.. So what are you going to do about it..?"

"I - I... don't laugh."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Carlos had said tensely, unballing his fists for the fifth time. What was wrong with him?!

"I have free movie tickets, because I work at the theatre you know - "

"Yeah I know," Carlos said quickly._ Get on with it._

Tim looked at him carefully, as if daring him to laugh. "And I was thinking of asking her to that new chick flick."

And that was it. It was the worst thing someone had ever said to him.

"'Love is Endless?!'" Carlos had asked disbelievingly.

"You said you wouldn't laugh!"

"I'm not!" Carlos said, trying to relax; trying to ignore everything that was happening. Nothing was making much sense to him now.

"Okay," Tim had said finally. "Thanks."

Carlos had then made up some fast excuse to get the hell out of there and bolted. He had to, if he didn't want to end up physically tearing one of his best friends apart. He had then spent that following night up in bed, worrying about what Dorothy Ann was going to say, and wondering why it bothered him so much that Tim was going to ask her out. Tim was a nice guy; a good artist, loyal - but DA could obviously do better than that. She'd know that surely.

She had luckily gotten food poisoning that night at Wanda's house, thank God, and didn't show up the next two days for school. Carlos supposed Tim saw it as some sort of sign that it just wasn't a good time, because when she did come back, he never asked her.

"Carlos?"

Carlos looked up at her from the flames. He blinked, temporarily blinded from the contrast between the burning orange flames and the dim light coming off of DA. Then they adjusted. And he couldn't help noticing how... cute she looked with his jacket wrapped around her... He shook his head, clearing it of the image of his arms wrapped around her instead that had suddenly popped into his mind.

"I don't - I don't remember," he said finally.

Dorothy Ann looked at him sceptically. "You obviously remember something, the way you were glaring at the fire. What was it?"

"Nothing," Carlos said quickly.

"So no one ever said anything that bothered you tremendously.." Dorothy Ann said, nettled. "Right... Because you're life's so perfect."

"I never said it was, I just really can't remember!" Carlos said, trying to think of another answer that she'd be satisfied with. "Um... Mr. Ramone, I'm sorry to say you did not pass your drivers test."

Dorothy Ann looked very unimpressed, almost angry. She seemed to know he was hiding something from her. But the way she was looking at him now.. What, did she expect him to tell her everything there was to know about him?! Read him like an open book? Although, even though he wasn't telling her the truth at the moment, he did want to. He really did. But.. He just - couldn't, so Carlos instead looked around wildly for something else to say.

"Um... I don't suppose I could ask you the same question now?"

She just looked at him disgustedly. "No," she said reproachfully and stood up. "I'm going to get more firewood." And she stalked off without a single backwards glance at him.

Carlos snapped a twig angrily and threw it into the fire, almost as frustrated with himself as he was at her. Why couldn't she had just asked him if he'd rather lose an arm or a leg?!

* * *

**This chapter was fun to write :) :p I didn't forget the others, don't worry.**

**Review!**


	6. Won't say I'm in Love

A pathetic little fire burned dully in the middle of the small clearing currently inhabited by four lost, frozen to the bone teens. Sensible Keesha was prodding the little fire with a stick, trying to get it to start burning the large log amongst the kindling. Tim was wandering around the edges of the clearing, collecting as many sticks as he could; they needed enough to last the night.

Ralphie, instead of poking at the wood to get the fire going, had simply stuck his stick in and was watching it burn with a mild fascination. Wanda, who's head was currently leaning on Ralphie's shoulder, was staring at it as well, as though transfixed. Keesha had no idea why Wanda was getting far too close for comfort next to Ralphie all of a sudden. It was bothering her immensely though. Why should she have to sit all alone on the other side of this little - candle flame really - when Ralphie was letting Wanda snuggle into his thick, warm looking jacket?!

Keesha looked over at Tim, who was hunched over on the other side of the clearing, picking up a few more twigs. He would probably push her back nervously if she tried the same thing. He had flinched when Dorothy Ann had just laid a hand on his shoulder last week. Keesha shook her head. It was almost like the word platonic, didn't even exist in his vocabulary.

Keesha chose to look at the flames instead of the cuddling pair and hugged her arms. Still not looking up, she said to the fire, "Do you have anything in the way of food?"

"No," Ralphie said glumly, rotating his stick around in the fire in the same manner one would if they were slowly roasting a hot dog. Keesha's stomach grumbled; _don't think about food_, she had to remind herself.

"I still have an apple," Tim said, dropping the pile of wood next to Keesha and sitting down in front of it. "And a fruit bar or something. Wanda can you have me my pack. It's on your left side, right there..." Keesha saw him look curiously at how close Wanda and Ralphie were seated next to each other. The sight seemed to make him look a bit depressed.

Wanda turned to her left, tearing her gaze away from the fire. She lifted herself off of Ralphie's shoulder and took a hold of one of the backpacks straps beside her.

"This one?" she asked, lifting it up slightly off the ground.

"Yeah," Tim nodded and reached over the campfire. Since it was burning so softly, there wasn't much risk of his thick sweater catching on fire. Wanda tossed the pack over and Tim caught it in his arms. He then unzipped one pocket open and pulled out the food he had just mentioned and then some.

"So there's the apple, the fruit bar - two fruit bars! And orange.. A grapefruit... Banana..."

Keesha saw Ralphie stick out his tongue. "Do you have anything that isn't fruit?"

"Well, we're on a hike, Ralphie," Tim said. "It's fruit that's going to keep you going out here."

"Brrr," Wanda shivered. "Fruit and a warm fire!" And Keesha saw, with a jolt, Wanda bury herself back into Ralphie's side. She suddenly noted that Ralphie looked just as confused about this as her and Tim did, but also a bit pleased. This time, he put his arm around her. Keesha turned to Tim, who seemed to be wondering the same thing as her.

Tim then looked at her, and the two exchanged shrugs.

"Wanda's right you guys, put some more wood on," Ralphie said. "And - um," he paused and reached into his jacket pocket with the arm that wasn't around Wanda before he extracted a pack of matches. "We can try throwing a few more of these on."

Keesha nodded and took a match from Ralphie.

"Hey," Tim said after two more matches had been lit and dropped on the fire. "What exactly is our plan tonight. I mean, are we actually going to sleep here."

"Do you have a better idea?" Keesha asked. Though her tone was sarcastic, she wished he did; she certainly didn't and didn't expect any brilliant ones coming from Wanda or Ralphie either. She sighed. "I just hope the others are in a better situation than this..."

"Or if they're still alive," Ralphie put in. Wanda smacked him on the chest; Keesha would have done the same thing herself if it had been her in his arms.

But she wasn't, so she just cried, "Ralphie!" In the disgusted tone he was most used to hearing from her.

Beside her, Tim poked the burning wood. "I wonder where they are.."

xxx

"I wonder where we are..." Phoebe mused quietly, taking in her dark surroundings carefully.

"Lost," said Arnold bluntly. "Lost and dead."

It had taken the two of them quite a while to gain enough courage to slide back out from under the rock, even after they had been absolutely sure that the bear and her cub had left. As a consequence, it was already dark by the time they had finally made it out.

Phoebe and Arnold had then walked for maybe about a mile after that, stumbling blindly over small rocks and pebbles and smashing into hanging branches, before stumbling upon their first little stroke of luck. Phoebe had been the first to push her way through a thick knot of trees and into a clearing and excitedly shouted, 'It's the cabin!' before realizing it wasn't the one they were looking for. She had looked at Arnold guiltily after that, quickly apologizing for raising his hopes.

The cabin they were in was very small and very chilly, but it was better than nothing. Some other hikers had left an oil lamp in the empty sink on one side of the cabin and now Arnold and Phoebe were sitting around it on the wooden floor, trying to warm their frozen fingers.

Though there were a few supplies left here and there in the cabin, there wasn't any sign that there had been hikers through recently. Actually, all evidence pointed to the contrary, seeing as how there was one bag, hung up by the ceiling on a string, that contained unrecognizable, rotting fruit. Arnold's growling stomach had stopped complaining when he had laid eyes on that.

He shivered in his thick wooly jacket, and pulled his fingers back inside the sleeves. It was freezing in here. He could see his own breath it was so cold. He didn't complain though, and wondered if skinny little Phoebe was alright with her own, rather thin looking, jacket.

She wasn't saying anything though, if the cold was actually bothering her. Just looking calmly at the little light the oil lamp gave off. The light was shining on her the way a flashlight would if someone was holding it up to their face to try and look scary. Her peaceful, mellow face seemed even more inviting than the little flame though, so he chose to look at her instead in the silence.

"Arnold," Phoebe finally said quickly after a long, pregnant pause.

"Yeah?" Arnold said, quickly looking back down at the oil lamp.

"Do you think the others managed to make it to the bed and breakfast?"

"Probably," Arnold said glumly. "I always end up being with the unlucky group..."

Phoebe didn't reply immediately, she looked slightly hurt. Arnold's stomach clenched, something he had said wasn't good. She finally said, "So I'm unlucky then. You'd rather have gone with Wanda or something, right?"

Arnold shook his head hurriedly. Girls always took things too personally. Especially Phoebe. Well - actually that was kind of their fault - Phoebe was usually at the receiving end of their friendly teasing. "No, no I didn't mean - no, Phoebe, I'm not blaming you!"

"Okay." She still looked rather unconvinced and - glum...

"I'm not, really!" Arnold ran a hand hard through his orange hair. "I guess _I'm_ the unlucky one..."

"How can anyone who had been on one of Ms. Frizzle's field trips even _think_ of considering themselves unlucky..." Phoebe said, but she was smiling.

"Right..." Arnold said sheepishly, feeling calmer when he saw her lips twitch upwards. "Sorry, I'm just a little - "

"Unhappy, right," Phoebe answered quickly for him. She sighed and looked gloomily down at the oil lamp. "I know... I am too..."

"I didn't mean for you to be stuck with unlucky me, you know," Arnold said, rubbing his hands together fiercely in an attempt to warm them. "Sorry."

"Oh, no no!" Phoebe said hurriedly. "Don't be. I'm - I'm actually very glad I ended up with you. Instead of.. Say Wanda or Tim..."

Arnold couldn't help smile. "Thanks. I'm happy I'm stuck here with you too."

And then he saw Phoebe turn pink, which made his stomach contract, which lead to the excruciatingly long silence between them for what seemed like ages after.

xxx

Okay, she overreacted. Dorothy Ann Parker overreacted to something stupid and small that Carlos Ramone did and, as a consequence, ended up looking like a mad idiot. So what else was new?!

Dorothy Ann shook her head disgustedly and collapsed on a log a mere twenty meters from the mouth of the cave. She dropped the various sticks and twigs she had been carrying and buried her face in her hands. It was so stupid! She was always acting like a complete idiot around - around that complete idiot!

And, of course, she had to overreact when he was the only other person for God knows how many miles so that when she did decide to overreact she'd have no choice but to admit it and go back to him. There were better times to pick fights. Somehow the fact that she was on a freezing cold mountain, in the dark, with him as her only companion, seemed to have slipped her mind when she let herself get frustrated with him.

Dorothy Ann raised her head out of her hands and looked towards the orange glow of flame in the mouth of the cave. The stalactite looking teeth appeared to be bearing down menacingly on Carlos.

Typical, she had been gone for probably twenty minutes, and he didn't come to make sure she hadn't been eaten by a bear or something. He had probably forgotten she had even come with him, so self absorbed...

What had she overreacted to anyway? Because he wouldn't answer a stupid question that he was perfectly entitled to keeping to himself?! Maybe she just thought that maybe it had been _her_ that said it. Could she have said the worst thing he had ever had told to him?! DA thought hard for a moment, trying to remember...

Nothing extremely nasty was coming to her. Sure they had had their fights, but Dorothy Ann's insults were nothing like Wanda's. Maybe it had been Wanda...? Well then why wouldn't he have told her? If it had been Wanda? And anyways, insults usually bounced of Carlos' back. Nothing any of them could have said could have bothered him that much. Could it?

Why couldn't he tell her?! They told each other everything - or, so she thought. They had been such close friends for years. What was that worth when they couldn't even tell each other stuff like this. Well... she at least told him everything... okay, maybe not _everything_...

Dorothy Ann jumped up from her seat, and readjusted the oversized jacket that had slipped off her shoulders. He was going to tell her. She needed to find out. _Had_ to, if she didn't want to drive herself insane thinking about it, and so Dorothy Ann stormed over to the entrance of the cave, hands made into fists, wondering why she couldn't have just asked Carlos if he'd rather lose and arm or a leg.

xxx

Carlos jumped when he saw her approaching and almost dropped the cell phone he had been holding loosely in one hand into the fire. He quickly pocketed it and rose to his full height. Dorothy Ann wished he'd have just stayed, sitting, on the ground. She didn't feel nearly as intimidating when he stood up, due to the fact she was almost a full head shorter than he was.

"_Who_ told you the worst thing you've ever heard!" she asked like she wasn't going to take anything but the truth as an answer. "Just tell me who. Was it me?!"

"W-what?" Carlos looked very taken aback by the question. He backed up from her slightly. "N - no. DA - "

"Who then?! And why can't you tell me? I thought we could tell each other anything!" Dorothy Ann demanded, her hands on her hips. "Do you not trust me?!"

"What, so you'd tell me anything there is to know about yourself?" Carlos demanded right back.

Dorothy Ann stopped. This could lose her the argument; that wouldn't stand. "Maybe I would! _I_ at least answered all the questions you gave me!"

"_What's your favorite colour?!_" Carlos said loudly. "Oh yeah, real personal DA..."

"Fine!" Dorothy Ann said through gritted teeth. "You want to know _why_ my favorite colour's violet do you?! It's because I always associate it to one of the few times you actually compromised with me! Purple verses violet, remember!?!" Oops... Dorothy Ann bit her lip, she hadn't meant for it to come out like that. Or even at all... She swallowed.

Carlos stared at her open mouthed for a second, looking quite surprised. Then he suddenly smirked. "How come your favorite colour isn't purple then?"

"Carlos!" Dorothy Ann groaned, but she suddenly wasn't feeling as angry anymore. She even reached out with one hand and pushed Carlos back a bit, almost teasingly.

"It was Tim," Carlos said, still smiling. "Tim said the worst thing that I ever heard."

Dorothy Ann knitted her eyebrows. She was quite confused. "Tim? Tim?! What - what could he have possibly - "

"Nothing - " said Carlos quickly. He was beginning to look uncomfortable again, but DA didn't care this time. So it hadn't been her after all. But - well that wasn't fair, she'd answered his colour question in full, and it was considerably more personal to her than it sounded. "But -um - " Carlos continued. "Your eyes.."

"My eyes?" Dorothy Ann asked, very puzzled. Her _eyes_? What was he - "What about them?"

"Nothing..." Carlos shrugged, his hands stuffed in his pants pockets, his eyes looking determinedly down at his shoes. "They're - um - they're blue."

* * *

**Hehe, I was listening to Hercules song 'I won't say I'm in Love,' when I wrote the last C/DA bit. It inspires me when it comes to this couple :p**

**More C/DA coming up - they're too fun to write.**

**Review:)**


	7. A Bit of Denial

Dorothy Ann tried thinking of anything else. Anything that had nothing to do with the past ten minutes. She really was trying; her new, advanced physics book, was lying open on her lap, and she was leaning as uncomfortably as possible on the back of the jagged cave wall. But it was a lost cause; no matter what she tried to do to keep her mind off of him, the words kept coming back.

"_Your eyes... They're blue."_

Her eyes were blue, she had seen them enough times in the mirror to be sure of that, and... his favorite colour was blue. The prettiest thing the rainbow could offer him. But what did that mean?!

Dorothy Ann slammed her book shut - it was no use anyways - and looked outside the cave. Carlos had left to brush his teeth in the river nearby. He just wanted an excuse to get out of there. She would have said the same thing if he hadn't. Her startled reaction to his answer had made them both more than uncomfortable.

"_Your eyes... They're blue.."_

"_Yeah, and yours are brown. What are you - " _Then her eyes had gone as wide as saucer plates. It was almost as if he declared, full on, that he was in love with her. That was how she reacted to the simple statement.

And, despite the fact the cave was as dark as the surface of Pluto, Dorothy Ann could tell Carlos' face had turned as red as a beet after that; her face was feeling rather warm then too actually. And her stomach has suddenly felt like it was filled with live snakes. The silence didn't last very long, thank God, Carlos had quickly muttered something about having to brush his teeth and pretty much bolted out of there. Dorothy Ann did what she always did when she was nervous or wanted to forget about something, grabbed a book and read.

Which was why the physics textbook was lying, closed shut, on her lap. Physics had never seemed less interesting than it was now. Dorothy Ann fidgeted with the zipper of Carlos' jacket absentmindedly. How could the question, 'what's your favorite colour' be so personal? Was that possible?! How could it be the reason they were avoiding each other now. The reason he had ran off and she had hidden behind a book. A _violet_ book...?! DA turned away from the cover in horror. What was happening today?!

Dorothy Ann tossed the book away from her in disgust and reached up with one hand to grab a fistfull of her blond hair in frustration. She searched through her flustered mind, trying to find some sort of solution that would make this whole nightmare just a little less worse. It's not like Carlos would bother.

She groaned in frustration. She did _not_ have a crush on Carlos. Couldn't. It didn't make any sense. None. He was too impulsive for one. It drover he mad how he never thought things through and just did whatever popped into his head. Just last week he decided it was a good idea to let a squirrel loose in their science classroom! The fact that she could find someone like that attractive was revolting. Really.

And when Tim had asked her on a date last week, the reason she had turned him down so sharply was _not_ because she had been in love with Carlos for what felt like all her life. The _only_ reason she had even told Tim it was because she already liked someone else was because she didn't want him to ask her again. It was to push him off. She hadn't even said it was because of Carlos. Did she?

Dorothy Ann frowned, she couldn't remember. She exhaled heavily and groaned again. Okay, maybe it was obvious. She had fallen in love with one of her best friends. The one that drove her completely up the wall with every little thing he did.

DA looked back over to her purple physics book, tossed dangerously close to the fiercely burning fire. Why deny it... She turned so that she could see the outside of the cave, it was too dark to spot Carlos. How long would she be stuck with him on this mountain anyways? Oh God... what if it was forever! No... she forced herself to calm down. That was impossible, they'd find the cabin tomorrow. Dorothy Ann felt her stomach clench suddenly.

Dorothy Ann then jumped up abruptly. She didn't have a crush on him, she didn't have anything to hide, honestly. But... but just to make sure - and because things couldn't get more awkward between them... she nodded and held her head high. Yes, it was the only way... Okay, maybe not the only way.. but, it was the most appealing way...

xxx

Carlos stared at the gently moving river as though it was putting him into some sort of trance; his toothbrush was hanging limply in his open mouth as he watched the water break at the base of the rocks on the shore. It was so dark; he could only see the moonlight bouncing off the little ripples in the water. The gentle roar was drilling itself into his mind, blocking out all other sounds, like a buzzing in the ear. It was very cold, very windy, but he wasn't really paying much attention to that.

He had been so close.

The moment kept replaying over and over in his head like a broken record. He had basically admitted everything he had ever felt for her with that little statement. Admitted it to himself.

_"Your eyes... They're blue.."_

And boy her eyes had gone wide when he said that. He had let it slip. Someone like Wanda wouldn't have caught something like that. Dorothy Ann always seemed to know what was going on in his head. Or at least, when he least wanted her to. When he _did_ want her to, she couldn't. Or maybe she could and she could just keep a secret really well. Like, maybe... just last week by her locker.

Tim had told him he was interested in Dorothy Ann, Carlos dug his teeth into the brush as the memory replayed itself in his mind. On they day that Dorothy Ann had returned to school after being sick, he rushed right up to her; he had had no idea about what exactly he was going to say, rushing up there that fast. Because when he had, he mind sort of went blank and he had made some sort of quip about the amount of books she had been carrying. Seriously, she had been staggering under the weight. So he helped her out, took a few off her hands, and walked with her to her locker before Tim could find them hanging around the front of the school.

She had her hair loose, and it looked a bit messier than usual. There were circles under her eyes, like she hadn't been sleeping much the past two days. Well, she _had_ been sick. It was just like DA to force herself out of bed so she wouldn't miss class, Carlos was the same way with soccer. Wanda, who had been poisoned alongside her, had missed the entire week.

So there they were, Dorothy Ann bent down trying to find her math textbook in her locker, and him leaning on the locker next to hers, keeping an eye out for Tim. Hoping that maybe that dumb bastard was going to leave the moment he saw him with Dorothy Ann. He had forgotten that it shouldn't have bothered him in the first place. Forgotten that his feelings towards her were supposed to be purely platonic.

"Er - Carlos?" she had asked when he hadn't answered her question about what she had missed in science class.

He had jumped, and broken out of his revere. "Er - what?"

"Urg, never mind," she had said, slightly irritated. "I have math with Tim next, I can get the notes from him."

"What?! No, I can give you the notes!" he had said hurriedly, already slinging his backpack over his should to search for them for her.

"No, really Carlos. It's fine. I need to leave for class," she had said. "I can't be late after missing two whole days before."

"No, here. I found them!" and he held out a crumpled set of notes on the circulatory system.

"Er.. Thanks Carlos.." she said, scrunching up her nose and frowning, but taking the papers out of his hands anyways. "Honestly, don't you have a binder or something?!"

"Uh - DA, wait. Before you go - "

DA, sighed impatiently, on the balls of her feet. "Yes? What do you want Carlos, I really have to - "

"I'm really glad you're back," he said so quickly he didn't think there was any way she could have caught it. She didn't, she was readjusting her heavy bag on her shoulders and looking at her watch impatiently.

"I'm sorry? Didn't catch that."

"And - " Carlos grabbed her arm before she could leave him. "Um - are you doing anything the weekend?"

"Not that I know of," she said. "Why?"

"Because, because. I dunno," he had stuffed his hands in his pocked and looked down at his shoelaces. "I thought you could come over and see a movie or something." The he shrugged.

"I'd love to Carlos, but can we talk about it later? The bell - "

"Promise you'll come."

"Y - yes. But - talk to me about it later okay - when I don't have a class to rush to?"

"O - okay..." and then he watched her sprint off in the direction of her next class, towards Tim... If she had any idea what he had really wanted to ask, she didn't give him any sign.

Carlos swallowed and his toothbrush bumped against his teeth. He hadn't asked her on a date. Really. That's not what it was. It was just, he knew Tim would be rejected by her anyways. Of course she would. And if her excuse was she had plans with another friend, he'd leave her alone and never ask her again, right? Well, he hadn't yet...

It just, didn't make _sense_. Him and her. None whatsoever. Or at least, nothing he could see. But there was still something there that he felt for her. Something more than with Keesha, Wanda, or Phoebe. Which is why he made up some garbled excuse about having to go brush his teeth and bolted out of there before she could say anything.

Carlos rubbed his numb hands together furiously and turned towards the mouth of the cave. His 20 20 vision told him that she was sitting next to the fire with a thick book in her hands. Well, duh. He didn't need his eyes to know that. He could read her like a book. Knew what made her tick, what would make her happy...

Just didn't know that her favourite colour was violet, that's all. Carlos shook his head, he remembered that argument; their immaturity in that sense hadn't really improved. For crying out loud, just last week they were arguing over the pronunciation of '_vase_'.

Carlos suddenly jumped and almost choked on his forgotten toothbrush. Something was coming towards him; he could hear the line of breaking twigs and crunching leaves moving nearer. Wait, it was just DA. He squinted. It was hard to make out her face, but there was no doubt it was her storming up to him.

Carlos stood up and started to march right back at her. He wasn't going to let her shout at him without giving her a piece of his mind first.

Carlos stopped directly in front of her and looked down at her, directly in the eyes. She looked back up at him determindly, looking ready for a fight.

"This is stupid!" Carlos said firmly, before she could say anything.

Her eyes widened. "Yes!" Dorothy Ann said, sounding very relieved. "Yes! It is! Really stupid."

"So we should forget it and figure out how to last the night instead," Carlos continued, feeling a bit less worried than he had second before. "Because this is stupid."

"Incredibly stupid!" Dorothy Ann nodded her head vigorously. "And we should forget it ever happened," she decided.

"O - okay..." Carlos stuttered. Wait - what? How could she expect him to forget -

"So... everything's back to normal right?"

Carlos studied her for a moment. Was anything _ever_ normal when it came to them? But what else was he supposed to say? "If you want it to be."

"I want it to - to..." He heard her feet shuffle nervously on the ground. "Wait, what?"

"Back to norm - "

"Wait," Dorothy Ann said, looking down at the ground. "That's not why I wanted to come." He heard her take a deep intake of breath and saw it foggily drift away when she exhaled. "I need to know something."

"What Tim said to me?" Carlos asked. He wasn't worried about the question anymore. In fact, he really, _really_ wanted to tell her, so, why the hell not? "DA," he said it quickly. "He told me that he was going to - "

But he didn't get to finish his sentence.


	8. A bit of Daring

**Hehe, fun chapter to write :p

* * *

**

Keesha dipped her empty plastic bottle into the river and let the water seep in. The ice ran over her hand, already bone cold, but she didn't have the strength to shiver. Her numb mind only really noticed how nice the running water felt curling and sliding past her dirty fingers. She didn't even realize her water bottle had been full for awhile before she finally pulled it out and screwed the cap back on. She placed the bottle up beside her feet and picked up Wanda's bottle to do the same thing.

She stuck this one slightly in the sand for some reason. She didn't really know why; the dirt and pebbles were sure to get into it. But for some reason, she _was_ feeling slightly vexed towards Wanda. She knew this much however: that it was made her rather frustrated and irritated that Wanda was able to snuggle up next to Ralphie in this bitter cold and leave her alienated with Tim.

It made her even more bewildered that Ralphie had just let that loudmouth, pushy, in-your-face kid huddle up close to him when she had been sitting right across from him! Come on, Ralphie and Wanda?! Wanda had never shown any interest in Ralphie that went anywhere beyond platonic. Keesha felt slightly cheated.

Or maybe Wanda was just cold and Ralphie had been in closer proximity to her than Tim. But Keesha somehow doubted that Wanda would press that close into Tim's body as she had Ralphie's.

"Hey Keesha, thought I'd lost you for a second."

Speak of the devil, Keesha thought as she heard some violent rustling of the bushes behind her. Tim emerged from then and she heard him break a few sticks under his sneakers as he moved towards her; she pulled Wanda's water bottle out of the river.

"Just filling up our water bottles," Keesha sighed bitterly. Wanda had given the orders - surprise, surprise. Tim and her were to refill the water bottles by the nearby creek, while Wanda and Ralphie collected the firewood and tried to build tent out of sticks and the towels all four of them had brought.

"Why are you so grouchy?" Tim inquired, crouching down next to her.

Keesha glared back at him disgustedly. "Why do you think - "

"Never mind," Tim said quickly. "I just mean - well, try to look at the bright side."

Keesha snorted. "Bright side, right..."

Tim settled down, cross legged, next to her. "Yes, bright side. Listen to the forest around you for a second. It'll calm you down and you'll hardly even feel the cold. The river flowing gently, the wind softly blowing through the branches, that owl..."

Keesha rolled her eyes. Artists...

"It's not the cold that's necessarily bothering me, Tim," she snapped. "Why would you assume that." She sighed and pulled her wooly hat further down her head, to warm her exposed ears. "It's Wanda."

"What, why?" Tim asked. "She's been surprisingly calm and helpful today. I only got snapped at once."

"She hardly ever snaps at you Tim," Keesha said. "But before you and Ralphie found us, she was constantly shouting orders to me and - "

"You like to be in control of things too you know," Tim said; he now pulled out his own water bottle and dipped it beneath the surface of the river. "And always like to be right."

"And what's she playing at?! With Ralphie I mean," Keesha asked indignantly.

The dark clouds had covered the whole night sky, including the moon and stars. But the midnight sun glared through the obstruction and casted the only light Tim and Keesha had to go by. Keesha could see a sliver of the pale light illuminating Tim's right eyebrow as it lifted in curiosity.

"With Ralphie? What? Oh... you mean, when she - "

"When she pressed her entire body into his and he just let her, like he actually - well like he was pleased she was giving him that sort of attention!" Keesha said bitterly. She bit her lip and heard Tim sigh, almost morosely, next to her.

"Wanda with Ralphie doesn't surprise me that much - "

"What?!" Keesha interrupted. "I was pretty shock - "

"Well, what I meant was, well, I dunno. I mean Wanda suddenly doing something like that doesn't surprise me." He rubbed his gloved hands together. "It's probably just platonic Keesha, they were just cold."

Keesha snorted, but didn't say anything else.

Tim shuffled slightly to her right and cleared his throat. "But - um - I can... sort of relate to what you might be going throu - "

"I not _jealous_ Tim," Keesha snapped. She folded her arms crossly and looked determinedly down at the running water. She huffed and her breath came out in a white cloud that disappeared almost the moment it came. Tim knew nothing.

"Oh... because... because I sure am."

Tim cleared his throat nervously and Keesha quickly turned her head to look at him. Had she heard him correctly?

"You're jealous? Oh no," Keesha was starting to feel slightly sick. "You mean you like Wanda _too_?!"

"No!" Tim threw up his hands to defend himself from the disgusted glare Keesha was giving him. "No! For crying out - give me a little more credit than that!"

"Well then who?" Keesha demanded, but her voice softening. She had never heard Tim, in all their years of friendship, say _anything_ about a possible crush. Nothing that ever hinted he was attracted to anything. For all she knew, he was asexual. She clenched her hands together, to try and warm then up, and eyed Tim gently. "Who, Tim?"

She could see, with the dim moonlight helping her out, that Tim looked very apprehensive. Keesha wondered if she should just say, 'never mind,' and 'forget I said anything,'- but she was afraid he would listen and not answer the question.

Tim was fidgeting with the slightly torn bottom of his shorts. He exhaled heavily and Keesha saw his foggy breath come out like a puff of smoke. "Promise you won't laugh, or gasp, or say anything that makes me feel worse about this?"

Keesha was really starting to get curious now. "I promise Tim."

Tim exhaled again, avoiding her eyes.

"Is it someone from the group?" Keesha asked, Tim looked like he needed some help in answering the question. "Someone here on the mountains now?"

"Yes," he replied hoarsely. There was a pause. "It's DA."

Keesha's mouth dropped open and she gasped. "DA?! Are you seri - "

"You said you wouldn't gasp or anything!" Tim said scornfully. "Forget it! Just forget I said anything - "

"Oh Tim," Keesha said shaking her head sadly. "Tim, I'm so s- "

"Are you going to say you're sorry?!" Tim was getting agitated now. "Sorry because I didn't end up with her on this trip, or sorry that she said no when I asked her out last week!?!"

"You asked her out last week?!" Keesha gasped again. Then she quickly put a hand to her mouth to stop herself. She took a deep breath. "Actually," and she spoke the next words as kindly and gently as possibly, "I was going to say I'm sorry that she's alone with Carlos right now..." she paused for a second. "Did you tell him?"

"Who?"

"Carlos, who else?"

Tim looked at her curiously. "Yeah, yeah I did. But he's the only other one."

"And what did he say?"

"He - he made fun of the fact I was going to ask her to that new chick flick, that's all."

Keesha frowned. "Are you sure? He didn't look - " she bit her lip, was Tim just being oblivious, or was she just being an idiot in thinking that, maybe, Carlos liked - "he didn't look mad did he?"

Tim looked even more surprised at that question. "N - no, why would he?" He frowned at the expression Keesha had on her face, her eyes bulged out like a bullfrog's.

"He - he likes Dorothy Ann too, doesn't he?"

Now it was Tim's turn to open his eyes wide and gasp. "W - what? When did he say that?! Did he tell you?!"

"Yes! Of course - ," But then Keesha suddenly frowned. She couldn't remember when he'd told her... It must have been ages ago... Wait... "No, actually... he never told me..." Keesha bit her lip. No... He _hadn't_ told her... So then why did she think he had a crush on - "Well... I just thought it was... obvious. W - wasn't it?" she asked him.

"N - no, w-when... does she like him?"

Keesha didn't really know what to tell him. Dorothy Ann had never said anything either about liking Carlos anything more than a friend... but... She was tempted to say 'yes', however chose instead to reply, "We'll just have to wait until we see them again I guess..."

Tim didn't say anything; he wasn't even looking at her anymore, just down on the ground, depressed and utterly shocked. Keesha didn't say anything else so the two of them sat there by the riverside quietly. Both taking in the sounds of the forest around them. The river babbled gently beside them, the wind played with the tree branches makind a hushed shudder, a bird whistled somewhere in the distanc, and, as they listened, they both felt calmed.

Keesha suddenly felt so relaxed that she moved her hand across the rough dirt with tingling fingers and slid her fingers over Tim's. His gloved hand was warm and she felt a comforting relief sweep over her skin when he turned his hand over and squeezed her own, as if reassuring both of them that everything would work out for the best eventually.

xxx

His hand was as cold as ice, calloused and rough, it's texture told her that there was dirt on it and he was probably smearing the grit across her cheek at that very moment. But it was hard to care. Hard to care when she felt his other arm wrapped itself tightly around her waist and held onto the small of her back tightly, hard to care when his warm body, through his open jacket pressed up closer to her than she ever imagined; hard to care when his lips were pressing so hard and demanding against hers.

She moaned and deepened the kiss before he had a chance to. There was nothing gentle about this first kiss: heavy, hot, completely out of control... And she loved it.

She planted her hands firmly on the back of his neck, stretching her arms upwards so they could reach, and held on tight so he wouldn't be able to pull away even if he wanted to. She couldn't let this stop. It felt so _good._ Why had they waited so long! Their teeth bumped against each others and Ralphie started sucking on her bottom lip. Wanda's hands snuck up towards his hair and she tangled her fingers into it. His cologne smelled so damn good...

And then, just before Wanda could lose her mind completely, he ripped his lips from hers and jumped back, chest heaving. Wanda whimpered and leapt back towards him to kiss him again. There was a quick peck on the lips before he pushed back again.

"Wanda!" he panted. "Wanda, what are we - what are we doing?!"

"I have no idea!" Wanda gasped, brushing a strand of her black hair away from her face, just as out of breath as he was. She honestly couldn't remember how it had started, but she didn't want it to stop. Not now, not when it had started feeling so good and right. "But I like it!"

"I - I really like it too," Ralphie panted after they broke apart for the third time. "B - but. I don't get it! Do you?!"

Wanda shook her head violently.

"We - we were just sitting by the fire - supposed to be building a tent..." Ralphie looked like he was in deep thought, struggling to remember what had brought about that bought of insanity. "You - you were pressed up really close to me - and - I think I lost it."

"You felt so warm, your chest felt so inviting, I have no idea why I did it!" Wanda said heatedly, frustrated that he kept moving back.

"Do you, do you _like_ me...?" Ralphie asked; he didn't looked repulsed or shocked at all, he looked hopeful.

"Like - like that?" Wanda paused. "I'm not sure. Do you, do you like_ like_ me?"

"That's what every fiber in my body is telling me right now," Ralphie said, looking very lost.

"Then let's just listen to our bodies right now," Wanda said quickly, moving back into his arms. "They always know what's best for us."

"Yeah," Ralphie suddenly grinned. "Yeah, they do!"

"Then stop wasting time!" Wanda whimpered, pressing her lips back onto his and sliding her arms into his jacket towards his back. Ralphie returned the kiss more than willingly and slid his hands under her shirt, up her bare back.

xxx

"And then the puppy jumped up and took a huge bite of my aunt's birthday cake!" Phoebe giggled. "My dad had to get some frozen yogurt from the fridge for us to eat instead. We even stuck candles in it!"

Arnold laughed along side her, feeling considerably more relaxed now that one of them had started talking again. "See, that's why I like having pet rocks. They don't eat anything, and you don't have to clean up after them." He paused. "Well, just once, to get the dirt off."

Phoebe laughed again and Arnold smiled. The two of them had moved from the center of the cabin to the wall across from the sink. They were leaning against the wooden planks with their backs side by side, the oil lamp burning at their feet. Both had pulled sweat pants over their shorts and an extra sweatshirt over their shirts. Arnold still felt rather cold though.

"When I grow up and get a house of my own I'm going to have so many animals..." Phoebe said, thinking. "Two puppies, maybe three cats... ooh! And maybe even a bunny!"

"Is that all?" Arnold said, a teasing undertone in his voice.

Phoebe stuck her tongue out at him. "I'll bet you end up with a whole room filled with 'pet' rocks when you get a house of your own." She shook her head smiling, when Arnold opened his mouth to object. "Maybe you'd like a house built of rock too!"

"It'd be difficult to carve out..." Arnold contemplated.

"Are you going to stay in Walkerville?" Phoebe asked.

"I think so. Are you?"

"I think so too," Phoebe smiled. "I'm glad you're staying, Arnold."

"I'm glad you are too," Arnold said. And he really was glad; he hoped all of his best friends would stay in the city.

"We won't lose touch after highschool, will we?" Phoebe asked, worriedly.

Arnold shook his head. "Of course not! I won't let that happen, ever! Don't you worry Phoebe."

"Good, I won't then," and she suddenly did something she'd never done before and leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder. Arnold swallowed. He felt his stomach contract and slowly, very slowly, tilted his head down ever so slightly onto hers.

xxx

"He told me that he was going to - "

But Dorothy Ann had stopped listening long before he had even spoken. The words that had been pounding in her head as soon as she left the cave were blocking out all external sounds and thoughts from her mind. Tonight, in this pale moonlight from behind the clouds, in this isolated land with no one to tell her better, there was no way she could listen to much else.

_Kiss him, kiss him, kiss him, for the love of God, just kiss - _

And finally, after all those years of nagging, after all those years of being driven insane by them, after all those years of pretending she could ignore them, she finally gave in and listened.

She had never kissed anyone before, and always purposefully never listened to Wanda's long winded descriptions of who was the best kisser in their year and why - but she had thought about this moment many times over. Some of the imagined kisses were passionate, some were sweet, some, okay maybe many, turned into more...

But this time, the real time, she leant in, on her toes and bumped her lips against him. It was not passionate, at least to start. Just a little peck on his cold lips. And she quickly pulled back right after. Then she held her breath, waiting for her heart to be broken - or for it to finally feel happy and complete.

"Go - going to..."

Carlos wasn't looking at her anymore; he was staring off nowhere in particular in the distance, as if in a trance. Dorothy Ann watched him without breath. She could feel her cheeks growing very warm as she saw him reach up with one hand and touch his lips lightly as if wondering if what he thought had just happened had happened.

"The worst thing anyone ever said to me," Dorothy Ann started to blabber - she _had_ to say something to break the silence; she was going insane not doing anything. "Was, 'Carlos Ramone - best looking guy in school, no doubt about it' from Jill Green - "

Carlos was suddenly brought out of his revere and he looked down sharply at DA. "Dorothy Ann, shut up."

And before DA could scold him for telling her so rudely to do such a thing, he returned the kiss. Dorothy Ann's eyes hadn't gone so wide since he had first pulled her into a hug and told her she was an amazing chemist. But when he didn't pull back immediately like she had, she began to relax and - enjoy it. Her eyes began to close and she slowly brought her hands up to cup his face. She had suddenly, in a matter of seconds, been brought from the darkest hell and into the lightest heaven.

One of his hands dropped onto her shoulder and slid down slightly; the other moved to the small of her back and he held on tightly. She moved one hand to the back of his head, running her fingers through his dark hair; the other hand still lightly touching his cheek when he deepened the kiss.

She would have if he hadn't at that very moment. And finally, for the first time that day, she felt warm. The feeling started tingling in her belly when he had first slipped his tongue into her mouth gently, and was now spreading to every extremity, fingers to toes. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion, but that was okay, she just wanted to stay like this forever, in his arms, without a care in the world. She didn't notice the first drop of rain fall on her head, didn't notice the leaves being blown into her blond hair by the wind, and couldn't even manage to notice the low growl coming from the nearby cave.

* * *

**Lots of romance in that chapter - sometimes it felt like too much... But that's for my lovely reviewers to decide :p** **I found going from steamy w/r to innocent a/p amusing.. :p**

**Next chapter coming ASAP.**


	9. An Annoying Interruption

**Suffered from a lot of writers block with this chapter. Hopefully I'll get my act together for the next one... :p**

* * *

Dorothy Ann's stomach was doing cartwheels; she had no real idea what was happening. The cold hands around her neck, his lips on his, his warm body pressed up to hers - it was all telling her she was making out with Carlos. _Making out with Carlos?!_ But that couldn't possibly be right - could it? Okay, so maybe it was a dream, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy every second of it.

Her heart was pounding violently as her tongue explored his teeth, the roof of his mouth, his tongue.. He was so warm and responsive.. Her stomach contracted when she felt one of his hands slide up her back towards her head; the trail left behind where he had touched him burned. It had begun to rain, she hardly noticed the raindrops until she felt Carlos' damp hair beneath her fingertips.

Then, at length, they finally broke apart, both in desperate need of air. Carlos bent his head so his forehead was touching hers and she felt his warm breath brushing against her lips. She could smell his minty toothpaste. Neither of them spoke for quite a while; they simply stayed close together, arms around each other. The fact that she was lost in the thick wilderness, lost with him, freezing cold, didn't seem to be bothering her anymore. It felt like she had been lifted out of that world and been placed in some sort of heaven and she never wanted to leave.

It wasn't possible, she knew, but could the universe have given her at least a few more moments of utter bliss?! Before she could catch her breath again and have a chance to kiss him again, she heard something that made her stomach clench and her breath come in shorter gasps.

Her hands instinctively clutched the front of his shirt and bumped her forehead against his.

"Ow, DA what - "

"Did you hear that?" she whispered, anxiously, pressing one ear into his chest; she could feel his heart beating beneath her cheek. A growl, a low growl. From the direction of the cave. She was ruining it; why was she ruining the moment?! So what if their lives might possibly in danger, stop it DA!

"I didn't hear anything..." Carlos said slowly. There was a hassled undertone in his voice; he was obviously feeling as confused as she was. Like he was wondering why she'd stop him and rip him out of the bliss, even if their lives was in danger. It made her calm down slightly and almost smirk. That is, until she heard the noise again.

"There!" she hissed. "Did you hear it!"

"I see it!"

"Carlos, for the love of God, shush!" DA clamped a hand frantically to his mouth and pushed him back into the safety of the trees. "What is it!? Is it a bear?!"

"I think it was a cat..." Carlos said slowly, and suddenly Dorothy Ann felt his arms tighten around her. His toothbrush was digging into the small of her back.

Then suddenly she realized. "A mountain lion!?!" she squeaked. "That's even worse than a bear!"

"Shut up!" Now it was Carlos' turn to clamp a rain soaked hand to her mouth. "It'll hear you!"

"Oh, as if it didn't hear you already!" DA snapped. "What do we do?! Is it in the cave? We need our stuff!"

"We need our lives! Let's just go- "

"Carlos, no! I left my brand new book in there!"

Carlos groaned and DA felt his body vibrate against hers. "What'd you bring a new book on a camping trip?!"

"One of them's a survival guide on what to do if you run into a cougar!" Dorothy Ann said, pulling herself out of his grip. "I'm not leaving without it!"

Carlos grabbed onto her arm before she could get very far. "That book's not going to help us now!"

"And you're not helping now!" Dorothy Ann fumed. "I'm not leaving all my clothes behind either. You expect me to spend the rest of the week in these sodden pants?!"

"Urg! Fine! Let's just - " he poked his head out from the trees to look back at the cave. Still holding onto his shirt tightly, Dorothy Ann followed, keeping close.

The fire was still burning in the cave, it emitted enough light for her to see the dim outline of the whole mouth, jagged rock teeth and all. She saw no shadow of a cougar however.

Neither did Carlos apparently. "Where do you think it went?" he asked, quietly.

"I don't know," and the two of them subconsciously shifted closer to one another. Her cheek hit his warm shoulder and his scent mingled with the pine all around. Dorothy Ann's eyes suddenly widened fearfully. "You - you don't think it's out here do you? Out of the cave?"

"I have no idea," Carlos turned to look at her and his shoulder left her cheek. "Let's just go then."

Dorothy Ann jumped in front of him and pushed back the branches of the pine tree. Her eyes were already well adjusted to the dark, but even so it was difficult to make out certain things. A solitary cat for one. But no dark shape she saw came close to resembling a savage wildcat so she took a deep breath and started walking towards the cave, Carlos right next to her.

He grabbed a hold of her wrist.

"This is insane DA..."

DA continued walking forward; she reached the cave entrance with Carlos a few seconds later. "No cougar," she whispered. "Maybe you just imagined seeing it."

"I didn't," Carlos said, and in the dim light the fire gave off, DA could see him grab his own pack from the ground. She did the same with hers.

"Okay, I knew we'd be fine. Now let's go, quickly!" DA said, already starting to move back out the cave. "Then we can - " she suddenly gasped and felt Carlos' hands grab her shoulders and pull her back.

"It's outside the cave! Right outside!"

"Shut up, it'll hear you!"

Dorothy Ann was having trouble breathing, and this time not because of the bitter cold burning her throat whenever she inhaled. There was a dark, slender outline of what could only have been a large cat with it's pointed ears and long tail. She racked her brain, trying to remember what she had read in her book on cougar attacks. They went for the neck, right in between the vertebrae and the spinal chord.

Dorothy Ann reached up nervously with one hand and rubbed her neck. How to avoid an attack... Don't look it in the eyes - she turned to Carlos and saw his eyes were locked on it.

"Don't look at it!" Dorothy Ann cried frantically and pushed him back towards the trees, as far away as possible from the cougar.

"Don't look at it?! Then how are we supposed to know when it's going to lunge at one of us?!"

"You can't look it directly in the eye or it'll think you're attacking it!"

Carlos snorted. "Yeah, right. It'll see us and think we'd look pretty good on his plate with an apple stuck in our mouths - "

"Carlos," DA hissed angrily. "Just move backwards and don't - "

Dorothy Ann's heart almost stopped. It had seen them; it was moving closer. Carlos noticed too. She felt his rain soaked hand grasp hers once more and he pulled her back into the trees, out of the open clearing.

"What else did your book say?!" he asked as they backed up, not daring to take their eyes off the cougar now.

"Don't run, and - um, make yourself big.."

"Make yourself big?!"

"I dunno, it's supposed to scare them."

"How are you do that?!"

"Carlos!" Dorothy Ann suddenly shrieked and started backing up faster. The cougar had picked up it's pace; if it started running, they were doomed.

"Okay, DA," Carlos said briskly, in a tone that sounded as though he was doing some quick thinking. Well at least one of them was. "I know you hate prickle bushes, but I think it's the only way - "

Dorothy Ann's eyes widened in the darkness as she finally tore her eyes away from the cougar and looked behind her where a horrendously prickly looking blackberry bush was growing. DA swallowed and nodded determindly.

Too panicked to really notice or care much about the thorns cutting through her skin and catching some of her hair, DA let herself be pulled along by Carlos, just praying the cougar wasn't stupid enough to follow them. She never did find out.

The prickle bushes weren't positioned next to another clearing, or even solid ground. The second the last thorn brushed painfully past her, Dorothy Ann felt the earth disappear beneath her feet sharply and she fell.

The air disappeared to and DA found herself inhaling ice cold water instead. She coughed and spluttered as her head broke through the surface of the water.

"C-c-Carlos?!" she shouted, trying not to panic as all the feeling disappeared from her limbs. It was so cold.

"D - DA! O - over here!"

Dorothy Ann forced herself to move over to the sound of his voice.

"Come on," Carlos said; and she felt a hand close on her shoulder. She blindly paddled with him, praying that the edge of the water was near. A few metres away, the lake turned smoothly into sand without any sharp cliffs and DA and Carlos managed to make it over there and struggle, shivering and wet, onto the beach. Their water logged clothes trying to drag them back down.

Shivering and panting madly, Dorothy Ann slid her dripping wet pack onto the ground.

"Well," Carlos said, collapsing onto the ground next to her, "At least it's better than being eaten by a cougar..."

DA didn't reply. She just pulled her arms around herself trying to get warm, though knew it'd be impossible without a fire.

"And DA?" Carlos suddenly spoke.

"Yeah?"

"Don't take this as a sign or anything."

"Sign?"

"That we shouldn't have - "

"Carlos," Dorothy Ann said, interrupting him, a thought suddenly occuring.

"What?"

"D - do you think this is the lake?"

She saw his eyes widen in excitement and look around the waters edge wildly.

"Of course! The lake by the cabin!" he stood up, looking around. "We're close DA!" He held up a hand for her. "Hurry before we freeze."

Dorothy Ann took it, suddenly feeling more energetic.

"This is a good sign then," Carlos said, and DA saw him smile and they began walking, hand in hand.

xxx

Ralphie clenched his hands together into a tight ball. Fifteen minutes had already passed since Keesha and Tim's return with more water and he could not have been feeling more annoyed and frustrated.

First of all, it had started raining rather heavily, so naturally, their pathetic little fire has been put out and now the four of them were huddling, soaked under a few pines trees that couldn't act as umbrella's to save their lives. And second, well, him and Wanda had broken apart almost a second before Keesha and Tim decided to arrive. Nick of time, Wanda had whispered.

Ralphie didn't get it. They had been having fun right? It had felt right hadn't it? Why did Wanda feel they had to hide it?! She wasn't even huddling up to him any more. Ralphie huffed and crossed him arms across his chest. Though she was close. Infuriatingly close. He could smell the faint shampoo from her hair wafting up towards his nose. He turned away.

"So..." Tim started, trying to break the awkward silence. "Um... how about those... er..." he sighed. "What do you say we just go to bed?"

"It's only seven though..." Keesha said, looking at her watch. But she was yawning already.

"We could tell ghost stories?!" Wanda suggested and Ralphie felt her shift next to him.

"I've had enough scares for one night," Keesha said sourly.

Wanda shrugged. "We could go to bed then."

Keesha sighed. "Too bad we don't have a bed..."

"The rain's softening the earth up a bit," Tim observed, sticking one hand into a pool of mud where water dripping from a nearby tree was collecting.

While the others shifted around to get themselves comfortable and moved some of their clothes over onto the ground to make a warm blanket, Ralphie tired to get into a cosy sleeping position, and tried to ignore the fact his imagination was zooming into overdrive with scenes of him and Wanda and...

"Ralphie!"

Ralphie glanced up guilty at Keesha.

"You're on my sleeping bag - I mean sweatshirt," she said, tugging at the cloth he was resting on.

"Oh, sorry..."

He saw Keesha frown at him in the dim light. "Are you alright? You look really flustered."

"I'm fine!" Ralphie said quickly. And he couldn't help but glance over at Wanda just then. "Fine.."

Wanda looked back at him with piercing eyes, but he couldn't quite read them. He swallowed again. It seemed like this was going to be a long night.

xxx

Phoebe shivered slightly and huddled closer towards Arnold. For some reason she was finding it so much easier to get closer to him than it was in a school setting or even her home when they were all alone. It was almost... safer... for some odd reason. It was a wonderfully strange feeling...

Phoebe suddenly felt Arnold shift next to her and his curled hand rested against her back. The two were lying on the floor of the cabin, the oil lamp had been burnt out, and they were both trying to get to sleep. Or at least was. Judging by the gentle snores brushing through her hair and onto her ear, Arnold had already fallen asleep.

She could tell him tonight.. Now... Now that she was lying so close to him she could feel the heat radiating off of him. And he was fast asleep.

"I like you Arnold," she said quietly. "More than a friend. For years."

There, she had said it. He couldn't hear her, but she said it. That wasn't too difficult now was it? And maybe one day she'd get the courage to tell an Arnold that wasn't fast asleep, instead fully conscious with his arms around her lovingly...

xxx

Carlos and DA had probably walked for less than five minutes, but due to the cold chilling and numbing every limb, it felt more like hours. The thin ray of hope they both had was starting to disappear as the cold got to them.

And just as they were beginning to lose hope, Dorothy Ann saw something that almost made her heart stop.

"Carlos..." she whispered. "Carlos!" she shouted, her voice rising as she became more and more aware that what she was seeing wasn't just a figment of her imagination. "Come quick! Hurry!!!"

She heard him frantically rushing towards her through the brambles calling, "What?! What is it?!"

She grabbed him by the arm the moment he was in her view and reach and looked at him excitedly. "The bed and breakfast! We found it! Look, there it is!"

And slowly, as though hardly daring to believe it, Carlos followed her gaze and his eyes landed on the wonderfully welcoming building DA had stopped. He broke into a wide grin. "Yes! I told you I knew we took the right trial!"

And DA, after rolling her eyes, hurried after him in a run towards their destination.


	10. Night's Progression

**This chapter felt a bit rushed to me... Might try to edit it later on...**

* * *

Dorothy collapsed around the warm fire in the hearth and soaked up the heat greedily. The cabin was everything Wanda had promised and more. When first stepping through the large doors, her mouth had actually dropped open. She couldn't believe she had been introduced to such a gorgeous wooden building. High ceiling, bear mats on the ground - she hoped they were fake so that Phoebe wouldn't have a heart attack. A large lounge was in the middle of the main room and the most comfortable brown couches were stationed around it. Dorothy Ann was sitting in one, a blanket around her shoulders.

She had already showered and changed into a dry pair of pyjamas. Her and Carlos' packs had been completely soaked when they'd arrived, but they had placed their pyjamas by the fire almost immediately after getting inside so that by the time DA had showered, and Carlos had found something for them to eat, they had something dry to wear.

DA felt more comfortable now than she had all week. The warm fire, the cozy pyjamas, a full stomach. She had no idea Carlos could cook so well, and wondered how long she could hide her complete inability to make anything more complicated than french toast. The two of them had managed to dig up some spaghetti noodles and Carlos had made the best tasting sauce Dorothy Ann had ever eaten. It beat her mom's by far, though she would never tell her that.

Now DA was sitting by the fire alone, a warm mug of cocoa in her hands. Carlos had gone upstairs to shower in one of the guest bedrooms, leaving her to check the dark, rain splattered windows every second, praying that there wasn't a cougar or something waiting outside.

Dorothy Ann shivered, even though she was quite warm and pulled a blanket around herself tighter. They had searched through most of the bed and breakfast already, shouting out the names of their friends, but hadn't found anyone. To put her mind at ease, Dorothy Ann firmly told herself that they had probably ended up staying in some motel in the village below. But it was hard to get the images of her friends being attacked by bears or lying in the bottom of the river face down out her her frazzled mind..

Dorothy Ann shook her head. No, they were fine. They had to be...

She got up, placed the now empty hot chocolate mug back onto the polished oak table in front of her, and made her way out of the lounge towards the stairs that would take her up to the suites.

She had showered and left her soaking clothes in a corner room and now regretted the decision. After stepping inside, she sat down on the soft bed and looked to the large window on her left. Then to the one behind her. It made her feel far too exposed, like anyone could see her shadow walking to and fro in the room. She shook her head; she had heard too many ghost stories...

DA got up from her bed and walked back towards the door. She poked her head out of it, down the hall and saw, on one side, a series of closed doors down the hallway. On the other side was a railing that overlooked the lounge and entrance hall. The one second farthest door to the left was open. Carlos' room no doubt.

Dorothy Ann pulled her head back into her room, dashed off to the bathroom so that she could quickly brush her teeth. She then spat the frothy substance in the sink, rinsed out her mouth, and hurried back out of the room. She trotted down the length of the hallway, her footsteps padding lightly on the wooden planks on the floor. When she reached the open door she poked her head inside and saw Carlos' inside, pulling on a T-shirt. Dorothy Ann wished he hadn't, or that she had at least gotten another second of looking at that chest...

She cleared her throat and Carlos looked up. He grinned. "Knew you wouldn't want to sleep alone."

"No!" DA crossed her arms and glared at him. "Just didn't feel like sleeping yet."

He walked up to her, tugged one arm free and dragged her to the bed. He sat down himself and Dorothy Ann crawled up next to him. They didn't say anything at first.

"Soo..." Carlos said after awhile, flopping own onto his side next to her.

Dorothy Ann lay down next to him and she felt her stomach flutter as her took her hand and entwined his fingers into hers. She was so shocked at this sudden open gesture that she had, for a second, completely forgotten what had happened moment before their encounter with the mountain lion. Now it all came flooding back to her and she somehow felt more nervous than ever. What happened now?

"You know Tim asked me out last week," she said quietly, looking at their hands instead of his face. She felt his grip tighten, but the grip felt reassuring and she felt like the whole story she had been hiding was about to tumble out.

"He - he did?!" Carlos said aghast.

"I turned him down," said DA quickly, before he could say anything else.

"Oh... good," Carlos muttered. DA finally looked up at him and saw that his gaze was off onto the quilt. He cleared his throat. "You know, he told me he was..."

"What?!" Dorothy Ann suddenly sat up at this shocking bit of news, pulling her fingers out of his grasp. "He told you? What did you say?"

"Nothing," Carlos sat up so their faces could be more or less level. "What could I say?"

"Something, anything to talk him out of it!" Dorothy Ann snapped. "Do you have any idea how awkward it was! I almost said 'yes' just because he looked so pathetic there!" She crossed her arms. It _had_ been unbearably awkward. She had been worried that they would never be able to patch things up again after her answer. She had almost said yes, just to make herself feel less guilty, and maybe said 'yes' just so that she could stop waiting...

"I wanted to!" Carlos insisted angrily. "DA you have no idea how much I wanted to talk him out of it!"

Dorothy Ann just continued to glare at him. "He won't talk to me the same way anymore! Things just become horribly awkward between us. I sometimes wish I had said yes!" She eyed Carlos carefully after saying this. "Because I thought it might not be so bad and - and -," her voice cracked. "And I was tired of waiting..."

Carlos' eyes widened, horrified. He looked like he was about to be sick. "You were - going to say yes...?"

Dorothy Ann tried to hide the glee she got from his reaction. "I didn't really have an excuse for turning him down..."

"So why did you?" Carlos was sitting on his knees now, looking very alert.

"Why didn't you say anything to him when he told you?!"

"Don't change the subject, DA!" Carlos looked agitated. Dorothy Ann glared at him. He sighed and ran a hard through his damp hair. "Look DA, I couldn't say anything. I was just as shocked as you! I don't even want to think about it, it was the worst thing anyone's ever said to me! Do you have idea how it felt to hear one of your closest friends declare he suddenly had a crush on the girl you've been in love with for years?!" His eyes suddenly widened, realizing what he had just said. He groaned and flopped down again, face into his pillow.

"Well..." Dorothy Ann started, trying to ignore how tight her stomach had just gotten. "Well - I..." she was having a little bit of trouble speaking. She took a deep breath and reached out to touch him lightly on the shoulder. Carlos' head snapped up. "For - for how long?" she had to know. The curiosity was already unbearable.

Carlos shrugged. "How should I know." He slumped back, face first, into the pillow and spoke into it. "It doesn't make any sense."

"W - why?" Dorothy Ann asked. The words coming from him bothered her for some reason, despite the fact they had been running through her mind for years.

Carlos got up from the pillow again. "Because. You drive me insane."

"No!" Dorothy Ann put her hands on her hips. "_You_ drive _me_ insane!"

"No, you drive _me_ insane!"

"No, _you're_ the most obnoxious person on the whole planet! You - "

"Don't try to deny the obvious DA..."

"You still think the chicken and the egg joke is funny, you're the only one who seems to think that 'bookworm' joke is still funny, you act like you're four - !"

Carlos snorted. "And you act like a forty year, nagging librarian."

"And even you're writing could easily be mistaken for a four year old's!"

"Yeah, well you still draw like a four year old."

"You - "

Only before she could even think up some snappy retort that would have him totally eating his own words, he kissed her. Hard. And Dorothy Ann's mind was completely wiped blank.

She had so little time to prepare herself for this gesture that she almost toppled over onto her back. She pushed him back hard on his chest, but made sure her lips never left his as he deepened the kiss. Her hands then slid up towards his hair, still damp from his shower. He smelled so good... his soap, his hair... She tasted the mint from his toothpaste as she felt his tongue explore the inside of her mouth. It was getting harder and harder to get made at him..

She whimpered as she felt his hands slid slowly down her back, suddenly surprised she felt herself wishing they would slid under her shirt. They didn't and Dorothy Ann groaned in frustration and pushed him back further onto the pillows.

xxx

Wanda was shivering violently on the ground as she tried to get to sleep. It was an impossible task. It was _freezing_ lying on this mud. And disgusting. But she felt too tired to complain.

After much uncomfortable tossing and turning, Wanda heaved a huge sigh and sat up in the dark, crossing her arms. Were the others _actually_ asleep?! Not one of her companions was moving save for the gentle falling and the rising of their chests.

It was horrible sleeping here. Absolutely _horrible._ Wanda pulled her hiking boot out of the mud and grimaced. There were flecks on the mud on her bare legs. It was raining too, but at least that made the air around them just a little bit warmer.

Wanda sighed again and turned to Ralphie, who looked like he was sleeping pretty peacefully upon the ground. Wanda wondered if he had felt she had blown him off. Pushing him away the minute she heard rustling in the trees next to the clearing. Well, she couldn't let Keesha or Tim catch them so close. Keesha had been glaring at her enough over the campfire when she had just snuggled up next to him...

God she felt like doing it now. Or maybe waking him up so they could go sneak off somewhere... Wanda quickly glanced over at Keesha. She looked sound asleep. Wanda shifted over ever so slightly and nudged Ralphie lightly on the shoulder.

"Knew you'd come back for more."

Wanda's mouth dropped open and she withdrew her hand quickly. "Were you awake the whole time?!" she hissed through her teeth. She saw Ralphie's eye open and he grinned.

"Just waiting. Couldn't sleep." He sat up and smirked. Wanda's eyes flickered back over to Keesha and Tim.

"Think they're faking it too?" she asked him.

"I don't think so. Tim's got a leaf in his mouth," Ralphie observed. He suddenly frowned. "Why do you want to hide it?"

"Hide what Ralphie," Wanda said, turning away from him. "You expected more?"

"W - what?! Y - no.. Maybe.. W-Wanda.." he hissed. "Are you kidding?!"

"Meet you behind that large tree in five seconds?"

Ralphie was up on his feet in less than one.

xxx

_There it was again. The bear. This time twice as large. Arnold was trying to run, but his legs felt like lead. It was gaining on them. His stomach clenched, it's humongous jaws were bearing down on Phoebe. She was screaming - what was she screaming? It was hard to make it out, but Arnold had a feeling they were important, so he moved closer to her. The bear was forgotten for a second. But he still couldn't hear her. He was right next to her now and her screaming was like a whisper. And then he saw the jaws again, and yelled himself as they began to close upon them._

Arnold jumped and his eyes flickered open. He was breathing heavily, but he couldn't see the bear anymore. He couldn't see anything. Where was he? Arnold blinked.

Oh, he thought, his heart sinking, right..

He was lost in the mountains, in a cabin God knows where, with... a warm Phoebe lying beside him. He gulped, his glasses were slightly askew on his face, and he quickly shifted away.

He was starting to get quite confused an frustrated. Just when he was willing to admit his crush on Wanda to himself, he starts getting all funny around Phoebe?! What was wrong with him?!

Arnold swallowed again and backed up so he wasn't touching Phoebe at all anymore, no matter how innocently. Then, feeling colder all of a sudden, he lay back down on the wooden floor planks and tried to fall back asleep. He could hear the rain pounding on the roof of the cabin and was glad they had managed to find it. It was their one stroke up luck this whole trip.

Phoebe moaned softly in her sleep and Arnold felt his stomach contract. He closed his eyes, though it hardly made a difference, and tried to believe he was back in his own bed, safe and warm at home. It worked in a sense, because Arnold got very drousy after that, and mistook the warm body huddling into him again as a dream.

* * *

**I think this is the penultimate chapter, if everything wraps up neatly enough for my tastes in the next one.**

**Reviews are nice :)**


	11. Good Morning

**Apologies for the long haitus with this chapter. This was originally supposed to be the last chapter, but I was having a lot of trouble on deciding how to end it. So I decided to split it in two and get this half up. **

* * *

Carlos breathed in deeply, semi conscious, not quite remembering where he was or what he was doing there. He was in a soft, warm bed, snuggled into the covers. Was he at home in his room? Then why did he just inhale a load of coconut scented hair..?! Carlos' eyes snapped open and he jumped back, suddenly wide awake. 

His breathing softened and slowly became more controlled as he assessed and remembered the situation. He carefully lowered himself back onto the fluffy pillows, his eyes wide open, and propped himself up slightly higher on his pillow, than the head of the girl lying next to him, fast asleep.

He was lying next to Dorothy Ann Parker. The sun shined through the slits in the curtains and shone down on her head. He couldn't see her face properly, most of it covered by her light blond hair. Slowly, and very carefully so as not to wake her, Carlos reached out with one hand and brushed back a strand.

She moaned and shifted slightly, and he pulled his hand back quickly, but she did not wake up. One of her hands was hidden underneath the pillow she was sharing with him, her other was resting lightly on his chest in a ball.

Carlos exhaled heavily, willing himself to believe he wasn't asleep and dreaming of this strange new heaven. The last night seemed like a weird blur. Him and her had gotten lost, been chased by a cougar... He remembered how she'd clutched onto his arms so tightly and how close she had been as she'd hissed instructions in his ear. And... and she had kissed him...

Carlos rested his head on his arm and closed his eyes, then opened them again. It didn't make sense.

Then she had come into his room, they had kissed again. And this time there was nothing to stop them. He remembered it as just an exhausting and exhilarating blur. Dorothy Ann looked so cute and ... innocent... lying on the white sheets next to him. Carlos suddenly smirked. It was amusing to think she, who looked like a fallen angel now, had grabbed his hands last night and lead them under her shirt.

That's how far they went though, and, with Dorothy Ann, he wouldn't have asked for anything more. A peck on the cheek, or, heck, just a brush against her hand was enough to satisfy him for a week.

xxx

Wanda shivered violently and buried her numb nose into Ralphie's chest. It was so cold. She didn't understand how he wasn't even shivering. Or how he had even managed to fall asleep in this cold and rain.

The two had managed to get their hands off each other sometime around midnight... or close to that anyway, and then decided to finally get some sleep. They had both been exhausted after all.. Wanda grinned.

She looked around the campsite to see if everyone was still asleep, and when saw that everyone was, Wanda closed her exhausted eyes again, her cheek resting on Ralphie stomach, which was rising up and down serenely.

Surprisingly, she wasn't at all surprised or confused of that fact that she had been making out with Ralphie like their lives depended on it - okay, _that_ didn't make sense, but this did. And then _that_ didn't make sense.

Woah Li, Wanda smacked herself on the head, and hit a mosquito without knowing it, trying to clear her head. Usually it wasn't full of so many thoughts. Dammit Ralphie, who'd have thought _he'd_ be the one to make her think so hard?!

Wanda sighed. Oh well, the damage was done, and she definitely wasn't planning on giving Ralphie up this soon. It might be interesting to see where this went.

And so, quickly, figuring their time alone together before the others woke up was limited, Wanda leaned over close to Ralphie's ear and whispered his name teasingly.

His eyes snapped open and he jumped. Wanda suppressed a giggle and placed one numb hand on his warm thigh, leaning in close so that she could kiss him again. Ralphie responded almost immediately, and as she got closer, so did her hand slide further up his jeans.

"It's too cold for sleep..." Wanda said quietly, keeping her voice down so she wouldn't wake any of her other companions up.

"No kidding, you're hands are freezing!" Ralphie laughed, but stopped hastily, "But don't stop!" he added hastily, for Wanda had made to remove her hand from his thigh. Wanda grinned and continued her seduction.

xxx

"Is there anything left over for breakfast?" Phoebe asked rubbing her eyes and yawning. Her back felt very sore, but that was just another side affect one got from sleeping on the hard wooden floor in an ice cold cabin in the middle of nowhere. Phoebe shivered.

"Let me see..." Arnold murmured, sticking his hands inside the depths of his backpack. "Oh, there's something here - I - eww.." Arnold quickly retracted his hand. "The mallowblasters melted then froze over again.."

"Well as long as they don't have hair or something stuck to them," Phoebe said, shifting over to where Arnold sat.

"No... But this one has banana smeared all over it..." Arnold said, a disgusted expression on his face when he pulled it out to show Phoebe.

"Then I'll take the clean one," Phoebe giggled and took it from his loose hand.

"Hey!" Arnold felt the sweet disappear from his palm and turned over to Phoebe. "Fine... I'll eat this one... Nothing in a banana that can harm you... Even if it's smeared over a mallowblaster and the inside of my backpack..."

"Here, we can split the good one - " Phoebe broke the snack in two and handed the larger piece to Arnold. He took the smaller piece from her other hand instead and put it in his mouth before she could protest.

While Arnold chewed, Phoebe turned around to peer through the little window of the cabin to the outside. She suddenly froze, the mallowblaster halfway to her mouth. "A - Arnold!" she gasped.

She heard Arnold choke on his mallowblaster beside her. "W- What?!" he spluttered, coughing.

Phoebe jumped up and rushed over to the window, a large grin on her face. "Look! It was too dark to see before, but look Arnoldཀ"

Arnold choked the rest of the mallowblaster down and hurried over to where she was standing. "What, what is it?!" he asked breathlessly.

"Look, between the trees, right near the lake. Arnold, I think it's the bed and breakfast!" Phoebe squealed happily, turning to Arnold with a large smile. She saw his eyes, behind his glasses, widen in shock, and then his own mouth tilt upwards into a huge grin that soon spread from ear to ear. He turned joyously to Phoebe.

"It is the bed and breakfast. It has to be! Phoebe, we found it!" And before Phoebe could brace herself for it, Arnold leapt over to her and pulled her into a tight hug. He released her almost immediately, looking suddenly flustered. Phoebe felt her face growing red.

"Um..." she squeaked. "Do you - do you want to go out now and walk up to it?"

"Er.. Yes, obviously..." Arnold seemed to be regaining a hold on himself. "Come on, before everyone else thinks we've been eaten into a bear."

xxx

The pillow felt so soft beneath her cheek, the space were her arms lay loosely in front of her very warm. The sunlight that must have been streaming through the window above was shining red through her eyelids. Dorothy Ann moaned and shifted slightly. Her eyelids felt so heavy.. Where was she? Wait a moment..

Her eyes snapped open. This wasn't her room, it was the bed and breakfast. Dorothy Ann frowned. And.. where was Carlos..? He had been right here before she had drifted off to sleep. Holding her close to his chest so she could breathe in that wonderful soapy smell of a freshly showered Carlos. But now he was gone.

Dorothy Ann sat up, squinting at the bright light streaming through the cracks in the curtains. "Carlos?" she asked, her voice hoarse. Where had he - ?

A tinkle of china and a muttered 'shit' answered her question from the hallway outside. DA threw back the heavy comforter and slid out of the high bed.

"Carlos?" she asked again, padding across the soft carpeting with her bare feet towards the door. It was slightly open and DA peered through it into the hallway to see what Carlos had been up to.

Her gaze first on the floor, she spotted a shattered glass cup lying on the wood surrounded by a pool of what looked like orange juice. Carlos was standing next to it, a tray in his hands, with more dishes precariously close to tipping over in the same fashion the orange juice jug had just a few seconds before.

Dorothy Ann suppressed a laugh and hurried over to help him before anything else broke.

"I wanted to surprise you..." Carlos said, sounding slightly sheepish and looking down at the spill as DA took the tray from his hands.

"Oh you definitely surprised me," DA said quickly. "Here, I'll just take this to the bedroom and - "

"I'll get some paper towels from downstairs," Carlos said. He began to take off towards the direction of the stairs, but suddenly stopped, and turned back to give Dorothy Ann another kiss. It surprised her so much this time that she promptly dropped the tray and jumped back.

"Ah!" Carlos jumped back as well as the teapot crashed over his bare foot. "DA!"

"You surprised me!" DA said. "What sort of reaction were you expecting? You just jumped out of nowhere, I thought you were leaving!"

"Fine, I won't do it again," Carlos said, clutching his left foot and trying to balance on the other.

"I didn't say that," DA snapped.

Carlos smirked. "Knew you couldn't resist my charms. I'll go get some paper towels." He turned his back and headed back towards the staircase. "Enjoy your breakfast."

Dorothy Ann looked down at the floor where the orange juice was now mixing with the scrambled eggs and shook her head, but couldn't surpress a grin.

* * *

**Last chapter will be up ASAP. Thanks for your patience.**

**I like reviews :)**


	12. Starts and Ends

**Yay, finally managed to finish this story :p**

* * *

"Okay, Tim stuff that blanket back into your pack, Ralphie, same thing after you get all that dirt off, Wanda, got all your stuff?" 

Wanda crammed her water bottle into her pack before slinging it over her shoulders and glaring at Keesha. "Who died and made you boss."

"Well no one else is taking any charge!" Keesha said, stumbling under the weight of her own backpack. "And we have to get out of here quickly."

"Does anyone know where we're actually going?" Tim asked, helping Keesha secured her backpacks straps as she teetered under the weight.

"No Tim, if we did, we'd have been there before and wouldn't have spent the night in this freezing place!" Wanda snapped.

"You've certainly enjoyed it more than me," Keesha muttered under her breath.

"What?"

"Nothing," Tim said quickly, pushing Wanda ahead of him, away from Keesha. "Come on, let's just try to find the trail again."

xxx

Phoebe pushed open the heavy oak door as hard as she could and it creaked open slowly under her force.

"Hello?" she called, raising her voice slightly. "Is anybody there?" The door creaked until it was fully open. Phoebe stepped inside the building with Arnold at her back and suddenly gasped. "Arnold.. Arnold it's gorgeous!" And letting the door clunk back into place, she hurried over across the wooden floor to the large totem pole carving in the corner of the room.

Arnold walked over to her slowly, across the room, taking in the vast size and beauty of the building. He could hear what sounded like a fountain running in the next room. Before him, Phoebe had already excitedly torn into the lounge next to the entrance. He heard her gasp again, but this time, not of joy.

"Phoebe?!" Arnold rushed over to where he had heard the startled shriek and saw Phoebe standing in the lounge. His heart rate went back down. She was standing at the foot of a bear rug, looking absolutely horrified.

"You - you don't think they used a _real_ bear fur do you?" she asked him when he joined her at her side.

"As long as it's not going to come back to life and eat me, I'm happy."

"Arnold!" Phoebe glared at him menacingly. "That's a horrible thing to say!"

"I'm sure it's fake... Don't - "

"Phoebe?! Arnold!"

Phoebe and Arnold jumped and turned to the sound. DA was standing on the second floor, clutching onto the wooden railing next to the stairs. Her face was made into a wide grin. "You made it!"

She tore down the stairs to greet them, Arnold saw Carlos poke his head out of one of the room and almost had a heart attack from surprise and joy. Arnold felt the corners of his mouth tug up and he grinned too as Carlos pulled him into a hug.

Phoebe had already broken into a sprint towards their friends. DA and Phoebe embraced at the foot of the stairs and when they pulled back, Arnold saw tears on both faces.

"Oh DA, you have no idea how worried I've been about you!" Phoebe sobbed and Arnold put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "I - I thought you might be d-dead or something!"

"Me too, me too! We heard you scream!" Dorothy Ann wailed back.

"Are Keesha, Wanda, Ralphie, and - "

"No one else is here," Carlos said quietly to Phoebe and Arnold, looking back and forth between the pair.

Dorothy Ann's eyes suddenly widened and she smacked herself in the forehead. Arnold felt slightly alarmed. "The phone! How could we have been so stupid?!"

"We lost the connection ages ago," Phoebe said gloomily.

"No!" Dorothy Ann shook her head. "The one in the lobby. We could try it. Carlos and I haven't tried to contact anyone since we got here!."

Arnold frowned. "Why not?! That's the first thing I would have done! What else could you have been doing!" Neither Carlos or Dorothy Ann answered this question. He saw DA turn slightly pink, and Carlos look rather nervous and glance over at DA. Arnold frowned.

"I'll - I'll get the phone shall I?" Dorothy Ann said quickly, avoiding all prying eyes, before hurrying off towards the lobby.

xxx

"Guys..." Wanda started slowly, excitement quivering in her voice. "Guess what?"

The four friends had been walking steadily onward for an hour or so, making their way past more trees and cliffs. They were tired, hungry, and the atmosphere between the four of them suggested that they had all lost hope. That is, until Wanda stopped dead in her tracks and stared ahead of the trail excitedly.

"What?" Keesha asked tiredly, too exhausted to feel even remotely afraid. "Is it a bear? Cougar?"

"A corpse foreshadowing our untimely deaths?!"

"Ralphie!"

"No!" Wanda shrieked. "No I remember this place! I was here before! We're almost there I know it!" And without waiting for any responses from her fellow hikers, Wanda let her heavy pack slid over her shoulders onto the ground and rushed ahead towards the trees. She pushed back the branches and her companions suddenly heard her scream from behind the thicket.

All three rushed towards her voice, Ralphie in the lead.

"The lake!" Wanda shouted as they caught up. "It's the lake! Told you we'd find it!! I told you!!!" And forgetting she was supposed to be hiding the goings on of last night, jumped up onto a boulder and threw her arms around Ralphie as she kissed him. Keesha and Tim looked pointedly away.

While instead choosing to look at a rather interesting leaf lying golden on the ground, Keesha felt the dull vibrating of her cell phone in her pants pocket.

Her excitement rising rapidly, she pulled it out quickly and flipped it open.

"It's them!" she cried, laughing after she answered. "They made it to the cabin!"

"Did they give you directions?!" Ralphie asked hopefully.

"Can we give a location?" Keesha covered the mouth piece of her phone while she asked Ralphie the question.

"Um, rock, lots of trees, lake?!" Wanda said, jumping off the rock she was standing on and snatching the phone from Keesha's grip. "Where are you guys?!" she asked urgently.

The other three waited with baited breath. After a few tense seconds, Wanda covered the mouth piece and spoke eagerly to Keesha, Tim, and Ralphie, "They said that you should be able to see the cabin from the shore of the lake."

"Well I don't see it," Ralphie said, hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun. He was leaning over the rock precariously and grasping onto a nearby tree branch for support.

"Careful Ralphie," Tim warned. "You might - "

There was the sound of a snap of a twig, followed shortly by a large splash and Tim knew his warning had come too late.

Wanda shrieked with laughter had to lean against a tree for support. Keesha rolled her eyes and took her phone back from Wanda. She was just about to ask if it was possible to get any clearer instructions, maybe there was a large maple tree in front of the cabin or something, but she heard Ralphie shout from the water.

"I see it!"

Tim hurried over onto the rock and helped Wanda back up so they could see. Keesha forgot about the conversation she was having on the phone for a second and hurried off after them.

Wanda was the first to slid into the water, but whereas Ralphie had been fully submerged, Wanda only went in up to her knees.

"Hey it's really not that far," Keesha observed.

"Want to just swim there?" Ralphie grinned, eagerly paddling towards her. Keesha crawled back up the rock, away from him. Wanda splashed him.

"Come on!" Wanda ordered, shivering slightly in the water. "We'll just follow the shoreline."

"Great idea Wan!" Ralphie exclaimed, lifting himself out of the lake; the water streamed from his clothes and he put his arms around Wanda.

She shrieked and elbowed him in the stomach. "Ralphie! You got me all wet!" she angrily pushed him back into the lake.

"Er - guys, food and warmth await..." Tim said, rolling his eyes at the pair of them. Keesha informed the rest of the gang that they were on the way and closed her cell phone.

xxx

With the news that their friends were still alive and would be arriving shortly, Phoebe felt much happier than she had just an hour ago. Arnold, Carlos, DA, and her were sitting in the lounge next to the roaring fire in the hearth. Phoebe was still in the clothes she had worn all night and couldn't wait to finally take a shower, but she wanted to wait for the rest of her friends to come. Arnold seemed to be thinking along the same lines as her and was currently sitting at her side, nursing a cup of hot cider Carlos had just made for all of them. Dorothy Ann was resting her head on Carlos' shoulder as the two of them sat comfortably in the sofa across from Phoebe and Arnold's. Neither Phoebe or Arnold questioned it too much, though it was slightly odd behavior.

"So when did you to get here?" Arnold asked.

"Sometime last night," Dorothy Ann answered. "I didn't check the time, did you?" she adjusted her head slightly so that she could look up at Carlos.

"No.." he answered. "There was too much going on..."

"I'm glad we've found the others though," Phoebe said. "I was so worried..."

"You two want to pick out a bedroom before they get here?" Carlos asked, smiling. "There are only a few suites."

"Hadn't really thought about that much to tell you the truth..." Arnold said. "Which one did you pick?"

"Farthest on the left," Carlos said, pointing up to the railing on the second floor. "It's the biggest."

"Oh course," Phoebe said rolling her eyes at him, but smiling. She stood up. "Alright I'll go chose one now."

"I'll come too," Arnold placed his now empty cider mug on the table in front of him and stood up. "And which one's yours DA?"

"I'll help you pick out a room shall I?" DA said quickly, standing up so fast she upsetted Carlos' cider mug.

"Ah! DA!" he yelled jumping up as the hot liquid began to seep through his pants. "Do you have any idea how hot this is?! And my pants are all wet!"

"Well maybe now you can get a better pair. Beige was never your colour."

"Come on," Arnold muttered to Phoebe. "Let's leave before it gets too bad." Phoebe silently nodded in agreement and the two left Carlos and DA who were still snapping at each other. Phoebe hurried up the stairs with Arnold at her tail. Though she slowed her pace when she got to the second floor landing above, she still managed to lose her grip with her shoes and slipped on a puddle on the ground. And then, consequently fell. Right into Arnold's arms behind her.

"Woah, careful there," Arnold said, pulling her back up. Phoebe felt her face redden as she straightened up. "So which room do you want?"

Phoebe shrugged. "I couldn't care less. Anything's better than where we slept last night."

"Yeah, I'm in the same boat as you on that." Arnold suddenly looked quickly back down from the railing onto the lounge below. "Hey what do you think's going on with Carlos and DA?"

Phoebe knew what he meant. She'd noticed it too. She shrugged. "Maybe all it took was getting lost in a mountain away from everyone else for those two to finally get together."

"Heh, yeah.." Arnold suddenly looked uncomfortable. His hand was gripping the railing now, his knuckles white. There was an awkward silence, which Arnold couldn't stand for very long, so he quickly added, "I'm glad it was you I got stuck with anyway.."

"And glad you didn't stay home today - er - this weekend?"

Arnold groaned. "Phoebe... I haven't said that in years..."

"Right sorry..." Phoebe looked back down at her sneakers, the corners of her mouth twitching upwards into a shy smile.

They fell silent again, but this time it didn't seem as awkward for some reason. They didn't have long though, a few seconds later a large bang could be heard coming from downstairs, and a shout from Carlos and DA indicated that the others had arrived. Arnold swallowed, his mind whirring to the idea that was rapidly forming in his mind, it was now or never.

And then he kissed her on the cheek, barely touching the corner of her lips. And then ran off, back down the stairs.

It took Phoebe a few seconds to regain her footing back on earth and fully comprehend what had just happened. She didn't even notice she had the widest grin on her face and still had it, minutes later when she ran downstairs after him to greet the others.

xxx

Two days later, the eight of them were packed back inside Miss Li's van and were being driven down from the mountain range. None of them had bothered to mention the fact that they had been completely lost in the wilderness for a night to her. It really didn't seem important anymore anyway. It wasn't as though they didn't have enough to keep their minds off it, whether it was that on the first night they decided against Keesha and DA's protests to go skinny dipping in the lake, or Miss Li catching Ralphie and Wanda having sex in the outdoor hot tub when she'd first arrived, or when Tim managed to somehow get himself locked in the kitchen's storage cupboard with a few six packs (though it was suspected Ralphie or Carlos might have had something to do with it).

Now the eight friends sat comfortably in the back of the van, all feeling rather exhausted. Wanda was sitting up front next to her aunt, who had also made sure Ralphie was sitting as far back in the van as possible. This had put Wanda in a bad mood, especially since Carlos and Dorothy Ann had been allowed to sit next to each other, until she found a magazine underneath the seat to occupy her.

Dorothy Ann didn't dare let Carlos touch her in any suspicious way while they drove, but her head eventually made itself comfortable on his shoulder as she drifted off into sleep. Carlos' head was resting gently on hers, his eyes were open though. However, it did look like he was struggling to stay awake himself. Phoebe and Arnold were sitting in the very back next to a disgruntled Ralphie. They were holding hands and had been since the start of the jouney, both looking very happy. No one really questioned this either.

Keesha and Tim were sitting in the middle with Carlos and Dorothy Ann, lazily playing cards on their knees. The inside of the car was silent for most of the journey, and as they moved closer and closer to home, one by one, they all eventually nodded off to sleep.

xxx

The eight friends has wisely avoided mentioning their adventures coming towards the cabin to Miss Li, for aside from the fact she seemed reluctant to let Ralphie step into her Bed and Breakfast again, she didn't seem to object too much when Wanda asked if it'd be possible to do the same thing another time. None of her friends objected either. They were already all starting to forget the whole mess. Once the danger had gone and they had found themselves warm and comfortable in the cosy bed and breakfast, the eight of them forgot their ordeal rather quickly. It was probably the reason why, when Wanda had asked, "same time next long weekend?" in that excited tone once her aunt was out of earshot, that the eight friends agreed very eagerly.

"And - and even if we do get lost again - " DA had started to reply as Carlos placed an arm around her shoulder.

" - or run into another bear - " Phoebe squeezed Arnold's hand.

"It kind of reminds you of old times," Carlos finished.

* * *

**Reviews are nice :)**


End file.
